[IAEP] Mac Folks... Need your help downloading: The Forbidden Education - New Argentinian movie about Education
nanonano at mediagala.com
nanonano at mediagala.com
Tue Aug 21 05:12:18 EDT 2012
/>On 21/08/2012 02:25 a.m., Caryl Bigenho wrote:
>Would like to download the SD version with English subtitles .. > ...What is the best way to do this?/
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Hi, Caryl:
If you want to download the movie <http://www.educacionprohibida.com/> (it is far better than see it on Youtube) you
have to go to the homepage and download the movie and the subtitles separately.
If you put the two files in the same folder and the names are the same, then you can see the movie with English Subtitles.
For example: if you download the SD VERSION <http://www.educacionprohibida.com/pelicula/descargas/>, the name of the
file is :
/la_educacion_prohibida-completa-480p.*mp4*/
Then you download the subtitles and rename it as: /la_educacion_prohibida-completa-480p.*srt*/
I renamed and attached this file on this mail, it is a very little file.
So you have to download the SD version of the movie, put it on the same folder as the subtitles that I Attached on this
e-mail, and "that's all, folks"
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If you want to increase the speed of the download, there are lots of programs called "Download Accelerator", in my case
I downloaded the movie at 17 Mbps instead of 2 Mbps of my normal browser.
Paolo Benini
Montevideo
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Complete or partial reproduction, copying, modification
translation, dubbing and/or redistribution
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and public viewing of this documentary for non-profit purposes is permitted
and encouraged.
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This film is the summary of a continuous learning process and
under no circumstances should it be considered conclusive.
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The persons featured in this film have
varying ideas and opinions,
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their participation does not necessarily signify
their agreement with all its contents.
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Co-producers
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To all children and young people who want to grow up in freedom
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<i>I always remember a philosophy lesson
in which the teacher told us this story...</i>
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<i>A group of men were in a cave, prisoners since birth, </i>
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<i> chained in such a manner that they could only
see the back of the cave.</i>
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<i>A bonfire and figures manipulated by other men
projected all kinds of shadows on that wall.</i>
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<i>These shadows were the only connection
the prisoners had with the outside world...</i>
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<i>Those shadows were their world, their reality...</i>
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<i>One of the prisoners was released and allowed
to see the whole of reality outside the cave.</i>
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<i>How long would it take him to get used to the outside
world after a lifetime of confinement?</i>
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<i>His reaction might possibly be
a deep fear of reality...</i>
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<i>Would he understand what a tree,
the sea, the sun were?</i>
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<i>Let us assume this man does see reality as it is</i>
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<i> and that he understands what a great fraud the cave was... </ i>
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<i>The teacher briefly explained the
interpretations of this myth </i>
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<i>with respect to knowledge... delusion,
... reality, and that perhaps we might be</i>
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<i>inside a huge cave, which is itself
inside another one...</i>
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<i>But there is no doubt that this freed man felt</i>
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<i>a great need to return and share what he had seen
with the others ...</i>
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"The Forbidden Education"
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- Well, this is how - in his eleventh thesis
he reaches the conclusion that
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a philosopher must not only understand reality,
but must also come to transform it.
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<i> The media, thousands of books,
all political speeches,</i>
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<i>international organizations, experts,
philosophers, websites.</i>
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<i>They all agree on the importance of education.</i>
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<i>Investments are made in training,
building improvements, research,</i>
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<i>books, netbooks, electronic whiteboards are bought.</i>
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<i>Courses are taught, wages raised, wages lowered,
foreign models are imitated.</i>
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<i>All this for improving education.</i>
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<i>This doesn't prevent there being as many schools
as there are social realities.</i>
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<i>Marginalized schools, for the poor,
warehouse schools,</i>
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<i>schools for workers, professionals, the middle class</i>
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<i>public and private schools,</i>
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<i>schools for the rich, schools for the elite.</i>
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<i>The majority aim to include and contain
the maximum number of students,</i>
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<i>many others focus on creating
different hierarchies of workers,</i>
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<i>and only a few dedicate themselves to
so-called standards of excellence.</i>
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<i>Beyond their differences, all of them work and aspire
towards a common school ideal.</i>
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<i>To what degree does this ideal school help us
to develop individually and collectively?</i>
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<i>Does this educational paradigm really aim
to help people gain a good standard of living</i>
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<i>and to work towards bettering their communities?</i>
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<i>Is there any other kind of school that achieves this? Is there
an education conceived according to these ideals?</i>
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<i>This has led us to open the door onto a world
which is unknown to many of us. </i>
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<i>This film is part of a possibly endless process,</i>
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<i>a question which probably has no answers,</i>
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<i>a search for the true nature of
learning and education,</i>
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<i>what mistakes we made,</i>
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<i>and foremost, which ideas will help us to keep searching,</i>
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<i>to keep learning. </i>
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- Well, I guess what Alicia wants,
what the director wants, is
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simply to agree, to reach an agreement
about what you are going to say,
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it's a school performance, the school must
know what is going to be said.
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- Of course, of course.
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- Well, Javier, what was decided?
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- Well, I suggested that, as an exercise, the students
write an essay
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telling us what the outcome of all these years
at school is. And that's it.
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- "Very little of what happens in our school is truly important."
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- "They teach us to stay away from each other and to be competitive."
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- "Parents and teachers do not listen to us."
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- "That's why we say 'enough is enough."
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"Education is forbidden."
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-"If you seek different results, don't keep repeating
the same thing over and over."
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Students don't learn to read comprehensively
after 12 years,
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they don't learn mathematical operations,
they don't... well, they learn very little...
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What is it that makes a student fail at school?
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Rest assured that there is convincing proof
that it is not the student who fails,
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but that the system is poorly designed.
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The fact is that current educational reforms widely used
today use the wrong approach.
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They are a quick fix for what we think
must be improved in schools,
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The problem lies in our paradigmatic conception of education,
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it's a problem of basic definition.
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Elementary and high schools in Latin America are
nothing but places of tedium and boredom.
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I often ask people to come and visit a school
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in order to see "the mold that needs to be broken".
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And it's the teacher at the blackboard, giving a lesson
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in the middle of the 21st Century!
It simply doesn't make sense.
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It's a static subject, a subject
with no movement to it,
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a subject that only uses words.
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I am the adult. I am the one who is going to
give you this information.
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This is the way you have to learn it.
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Because that's the way it is.
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You are the children. Now be quiet
and do as you're told.
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Silence!
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Be quiet! You never know anything!
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They are not seeking, so to speak, any development
other than the curricular one.
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They're too focused on the subject-matter itself.
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Those who don't learn how to read, write
and calculate are not educated.
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Because the work focuses only on
some abilities, in certain areas.
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00:08:03,408 --> 00:08:08,121
Nowadays knowledge is biased because
our views are biased.
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We say that in today's conventional schools
learning is preventive.
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"Miss, what is this for?" and the teacher responds,
"Ah! Perhaps you might need it one day!"
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But we have realized that this kind of knowledge
doesn't endure nor prevail for very long.
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Nowadays, paradigms are changing very rapidly.
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Knowledge is constantly changing.
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So, what has happened is that the educational
systems have not changed
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as rapidly as the rest of society has.
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This is where the root of the problem lies.
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Teacher Training schools and universities
have always told us that
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an objective is that which can be measured,
quantified and observed.
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So we began searching for a method with
which to measure these objectives.
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And that's what we called 'grades'. Whether they
were an "A", a happy face or a sad face.
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But the logic behind it will always be the same,
to compare.
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To compare the individual, his learning process.
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Against a standardized scale that measures ... what?
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Every individual is unique and no two people are alike.
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It searches for a number which will determine...
it even defines the sort of person you are.
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Thus, for example, I create conflicts at the cognitive level.
"Let's see who does this first ..."
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Consequently some are winners and others losers.
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And every time there is a loser, someone
feels bad. Obviously.
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Children are actively encouraged to
compete with each other.
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The best students obtain recognition, receive rewards.
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Those who don't do well in exams are scolded,
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and in many cases they are ignored.
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Everyone talks about peace, but nobody
seems to teach about it.
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People educate for competition, and competition
is the first step towards war.
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<i>Theoretically, all educational laws talk about
profound human development objectives,</i>
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<i>human values, cooperation, community, solidarity, equality,</i>
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<i>freedom, peace, happiness, using many fine words.</i>
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<i>But the fact is that the system's basic structure
encourages exactly the opposite ...</i>
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<i>competition, individualism, discrimination,
conditioning, emotional violence, materialism.</i>
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<i> Any idea suggested by this line of thought is incoherent
with what the framework sustains.</i>
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Although education theorizes and discusses
moral principles and values,
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it discusses them as subject-matters.
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If I come from a fragmented model, in which
my particular interest is to teach History
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I'm going to check how much this individual
knows about History
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after I have told him about History and have
made him read a History book.
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And then I've finished with him.
I've nothing else to do with him,
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whether or not he suffers, or if he comes from a good family,
whether or not he is wealthy.
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The easiest thing for a traditional teacher is to keep repeating
what he has done for many years.
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Do you want to be mediocre for the rest of your life?
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Or what he has picked up through usage.
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You are no longer a second grade child.
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Thus, teaching simply becomes a process
of symbolic repetition.
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I don't want to hear peep out of you!
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Nowadays, in Argentina, the great majority
of children say:
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How awful! Today's Monday, and I have to
go back to that school again!
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And that's not the worst of it. Most teachers
in Argentina are saying the same thing.
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I believe that teachers nowadays are
the result of a system.
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A teacher isn't born or wants to be a
teacher simply to be good or bad.
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He is what the state allows him to be.
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That's enough! No break for you!
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Oh no! don't you start with "home problem" excuses!
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How can I educate these childrens' emotions
if at Teacher's College
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nobody ever spoke a single word about emotions?
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If you keep talking you'll be separated!
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I don´t want my child to go to school to waste time,
I don't want him to have any problems.
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Nowadays, an 8 year old spends more time at school,
than a College student at College,
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00:12:47,343 --> 00:12:50,734
It makes no sense, there isn´t that much
to learn at school.
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"Then school isn't even a space for learning."
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It 's a big Day Care Center, or as I call it,
a big Children's Parking Lot.
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00:13:01,215 --> 00:13:06,787
I think they are prisons. I think it´s dreadful. To think
that you have to lock children up,
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that you need to have guards to avoid them escaping.
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Thus they become more enclosed.
We build higher walls.
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The walls can be made of brick, or of trees. But still,
they are walls that isolate, that separate.
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I want the school to be a place
for his personal growth
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and not a place where he is trained to get into
some future Highschool,
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and then for University and later on for a job,
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and then, for what?
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00:13:45,961 --> 00:13:49,312
But it's much easier to say: "Now ...
you keep quiet,
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now ... open your exercise books,
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00:13:53,968 --> 00:13:55,747
now ... take a red pencil..."
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This is dog training,
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not education.
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- Yes, well, actually the pupils told me that they had thought
of reading this essay during the show.
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It's a draft.
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- Haha, it´s not a draft. That's the way we are going to read it.
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- No, no, no. Martín, there are some aggressive words here.
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- You can't attack us so wantonly in this manner.
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- If you feel attacked, there must be a reason.
- Now, wait!
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- Alicia, all we did was to carry out an assignment
the teacher gave us.
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- That's why I'm saying this is only a draft.
They'll soften the text.
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- We're not softening it, we're going to read it as it is...
- Martin!
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- We are not going to soften it.
- No!
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- Martin, this is total disrespect, as it is.
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- Sorry! I forgot that saying what you think
is a lack of respect.
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"Our problem in understanding forced schooling
stems from an inconvenient fact:
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that the wrong it does, from a human perspective,
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is right from a systems perspective."
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This is barely known, but education that is public,
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free and cumpulsory
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was invented at some point in history.
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Formerly, it didn´t exist.
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<i>In ancient times education was very different
to what we all believe education to be today.</i>
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<i>In ancient Athens, for instance, there were no schools.
Plato's first academies</i>
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<i>were places for thought, conversation
and free experimentation.</i>
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00:15:45,177 --> 00:15:47,719
<i>Compulsory education was for slaves.</i>
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00:15:49,174 --> 00:15:52,775
<i>On the other hand, education in Sparta
was more like a military drill.</i>
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00:15:53,613 --> 00:15:56,686
<i>The state got rid of those who didn't reach
the expected levels.</i>
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00:15:57,412 --> 00:16:03,983
<i>There were compulsory classes, severe punishments and
behavior modeling through pain and suffering.</i>
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In the past education was in the hands of the Catholic Church
at least in the Western Christian world.
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And it was only in the 18th century, at a moment in History
we call Enlightened Despotism,
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(you may have heard this at schooI), where the
concept of education was created...
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... public, free and compulsory.
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<i>Schools as we know them today were born in the late 18th
and early 19th Century, in Prussia.</i>
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<i>In order to prevent revolutions like those occurring in France,</i>
201
00:16:37,822 --> 00:16:42,278
</i>monarchs introduced some "enlightenment"
so as to satisfy the people,</i>
202
00:16:42,767 --> 00:16:44,904
<i>but maintaining Absolutism.</i>
203
00:16:45,644 --> 00:16:49,283
<i>The Prussian school was based ona strong
division of classes and casts.</i>
204
00:16:50,037 --> 00:16:56,483
<i> It's structure, heir to the Spartan model, promoted
discipline, obedience and an authoritarian regime.</i>
205
00:16:56,924 --> 00:16:58,875
What were these learned despots looking for?</i>
206
00:16:58,975 --> 00:17:02,591
A docile, obedient people</i>
207
00:17:03,156 --> 00:17:07,805
that could be trained for the wars that were occurring
at the time between</i>
208
00:17:07,961 --> 00:17:09,054
emerging nations.</i>
209
00:17:10,238 --> 00:17:13,406
Catherine the Great of Russia, for instance</i>
210
00:17:13,594 --> 00:17:16,655
called in French encyclopaedists to put this together.</i>
211
00:17:17,173 --> 00:17:20,824
<i>Diderot, one of the most famous, was there to prepare this</i>
212
00:17:21,860 --> 00:17:27,991
<i>package. Yes, a shaper of ... not of citizens, but of</i>
213
00:17:28,952 --> 00:17:32,403
<i>obedient subjects to those States.</i>
214
00:17:32,632 --> 00:17:35,730
<i>News about this successful educational
model travelled fast, and</i>
215
00:17:36,213 --> 00:17:40,510
<i>within a few years American and European educators
visited Prussia to become qualified.</i>
216
00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:44,846
<i>As time went by this model became international.</i>
217
00:17:45,583 --> 00:17:50,308
<i>Many countries imported this modern system,
of education, publicizing education for everyone,</i>
218
00:17:50,853 --> 00:17:55,491
<i>raising the flag for equality, whilst
the essence of the system itself</i>
219
00:17:55,677 --> 00:18:00,602
<i>came from Despotism, looking to perpetuate
elitist models and division of the classes .</i>
220
00:18:02,726 --> 00:18:05,012
<i>That was the birth of Public Education.</i>
221
00:18:06,361 --> 00:18:07,723
Notice that Napoleon
222
00:18:08,871 --> 00:18:09,940
a little later, and
223
00:18:11,199 --> 00:18:14,634
a sworn enemy of all these despots, did the same.
224
00:18:15,221 --> 00:18:17,053
He said so, mincing not a word:
225
00:18:18,284 --> 00:18:19,347
"I want to create.
226
00:18:20,453 --> 00:18:22,912
an educational body
227
00:18:24,231 --> 00:18:30,252
that will steer the way French people think"
228
00:18:31,420 --> 00:18:39,896
Get it? He certainly did! And this persists today,
whether we are aware of it or not.
229
00:18:40,449 --> 00:18:44,014
<i>Schools were born in a positivist world
governed by an industrial economy,</i>
230
00:18:44,494 --> 00:18:50,411
<i>thus it tries to gain the maximum amount of visible results
with the least possible effort and cost,</i>
231
00:18:50,806 --> 00:18:53,773
<i>using scientific formulas and general laws.</i>
232
00:18:56,572 --> 00:18:59,642
<i>School was the perfect answer
to a need of the workers,</i>
233
00:19:00,112 --> 00:19:03,198
<i>and it was the same industrial entrepreneurs
of the 19th Century</i>
234
00:19:03,331 --> 00:19:08,075
<i>who financed obligatory education with the
help of their foundations.</i>
235
00:19:09,083 --> 00:19:11,999
What do I do with the children of these people
so that they can work?
236
00:19:13,595 --> 00:19:16,942
How do we teach them to read, how do we create
intelligent workers?
237
00:19:19,083 --> 00:19:24,434
Education contiues to be the same today,
a means of creating useful workers
238
00:19:24,924 --> 00:19:30,075
and a useful tool for assuring that culture
will always be repetitive and uniform.
239
00:19:31,696 --> 00:19:34,699
Which means preserving the current
structure of society.
240
00:19:37,234 --> 00:19:40,485
<i>Schools were supplemented with research
in behaviour control,</i>
241
00:19:41,061 --> 00:19:45,032
<i>social utopia proposals,and even
racial superiority theories.</i>
242
00:19:46,263 --> 00:19:49,790
<i>It's not surprising that the first countries to implement
the Prussian system, or something similar,</i>
243
00:19:50,146 --> 00:19:54,752
<i>eventually became, in time, sources of extreme
xenophobia and nationalism.</i>
244
00:19:56,688 --> 00:20:00,734
<i>The assembly line in industrial production
was a perfect example for education.</i>
245
00:20:01,704 --> 00:20:05,034
<i>A child's education became comparable
to manufacturing produce,</i>
246
00:20:05,639 --> 00:20:09,565
<i>therefore it required certain specific steps,
in a specific order,</i>
247
00:20:10,059 --> 00:20:13,247
<i>grouping children by age into school grades.</i>
248
00:20:20,059 --> 00:20:23,668
<i>And in each of these stages they would
work on specific concepts,</i>
249
00:20:24,017 --> 00:20:28,548
<i>the contents of which ensured success,
carefully thought-out by an expert.</i>
250
00:20:31,041 --> 00:20:39,744
In other words, the teacher is the one in charge of teaching
a series of required subject-matters
251
00:20:40,477 --> 00:20:44,010
to a determined age-group, because
someone determined it so.
252
00:20:44,513 --> 00:20:46,444
But education is not designed by biologists,
253
00:20:48,722 --> 00:20:51,519
... funnily enough, it isn't designed by educators either,
254
00:20:52,534 --> 00:20:53,827
rather, by administrative clerks,
255
00:20:55,685 --> 00:20:57,288
people who never teach.
256
00:20:58,946 --> 00:21:03,202
<i>Within this chain, a single person is in charge
of a small part of the process,</i>
257
00:21:03,556 --> 00:21:08,386
<i> which is insufficient so as to know the whole mechanism
or the persons involved in it..</i>
258
00:21:08,926 --> 00:21:12,977
<i>One teacher per year, per subject, every 30 or 40 students</i>
259
00:21:13,716 --> 00:21:17,277
<i>getting to the point in which the whole process
ends up being purely mechanical.</i>
260
00:21:19,723 --> 00:21:22,687
Education, as it is today, is an administrative issue.
261
00:21:23,997 --> 00:21:25,946
Students arrive at school, teachers give their class,
262
00:21:26,313 --> 00:21:29,755
students go home, teachers go home,
and the following day the cycle is repeated.
263
00:21:31,006 --> 00:21:34,194
A state teacher is a clerk.
264
00:21:35,724 --> 00:21:40,761
Whose boss says: "You have to teach this,
this and this, and in this way."
265
00:21:42,175 --> 00:21:46,694
Because it has to be repeated to too many children
by a teacher who is overworked
266
00:21:46,828 --> 00:21:49,988
and with very few hours of private attention to each student.
267
00:21:51,121 --> 00:21:52,800
So he will always talk to a group.
268
00:21:52,907 --> 00:21:55,251
Because obviously, if I have 30 children
269
00:21:55,706 --> 00:21:59,718
I can't expect all 30 of them to want to
do the same thing at the same time.
270
00:22:00,438 --> 00:22:05,322
<i>This assembly line system, which appeared with Taylorism
was applied in industry,</i>
271
00:22:05,380 --> 00:22:09,594
<i>schools and the armed forces of a variety
of Occidental countries and cultures.</i>
272
00:22:11,682 --> 00:22:16,999
Until a few decades ago, schools
were a bit like a barracks or an asylum,
273
00:22:17,137 --> 00:22:23,164
even breaktime ends with an anonymous bell,
not a human sound,
274
00:22:23,970 --> 00:22:30,765
that instructs children to train themselves, little by little,
to stand on a particular floor tile,
275
00:22:30,817 --> 00:22:35,879
behind a certain head, to line up
generally in order of height.
276
00:22:37,107 --> 00:22:40,160
<i>During the past centuries we have built our schools</i>
277
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,080
<i>as if they were prisons or factories</i>
278
00:22:43,180 --> 00:22:46,564
<i>prioritizing obedience to rules and to social controls.</i>
279
00:22:48,804 --> 00:22:53,660
<i>Schools have been conceived as producers of
obedient, consumerist and efficient citizens,</i>
280
00:22:54,139 --> 00:22:58,769
<i>where people gradually become numbers,
scores and statistics.</i>
281
00:22:59,988 --> 00:23:03,777
</i>The demands and pressures of the system
end up dehumanizing everyone</i>
282
00:23:04,222 --> 00:23:08,465
<i>because it goes beyond teachers, principals
or school inspectors.</i>
283
00:23:10,463 --> 00:23:12,235
They are regarded as homogeneous groups,
284
00:23:13,214 --> 00:23:16,925
with homogeneous concepts which must attain
similar results.
285
00:23:17,659 --> 00:23:19,937
We all have to know the same things.
286
00:23:21,665 --> 00:23:24,494
Despite the fact we adults don't all know the same things,
287
00:23:24,572 --> 00:23:26,679
despite the fact we don't all do the same things.
288
00:23:27,328 --> 00:23:31,735
At school everyone has to want to do the same thing,
and to do it just as well.
289
00:23:32,958 --> 00:23:36,946
Thus schools don't have the capacity to
fulfill individual needs,
290
00:23:38,016 --> 00:23:41,794
because schools train, they are training centers,
that is what they do.
291
00:23:42,284 --> 00:23:45,182
He who doesn't learn, stays behind. That's it.
292
00:23:47,151 --> 00:23:52,306
This implies that the education system
is a social exclusion system:
293
00:23:52,607 --> 00:23:56,295
it selects the type of people that will get to University
294
00:23:56,418 --> 00:24:00,065
so that they will then become part of an elite
295
00:24:00,734 --> 00:24:06,050
which dominates companies and production, economic
and communication systems, etc.
296
00:24:06,153 --> 00:24:07,799
And another type of people
297
00:24:08,770 --> 00:24:11,792
for whom school is not appropriate enough
298
00:24:12,303 --> 00:24:17,836
and who are destined to less certain jobs because they
won't have the qualifications to do this.
299
00:24:17,995 --> 00:24:19,816
The system, the states,
300
00:24:21,209 --> 00:24:22,209
are not worried about all this,
301
00:24:23,282 --> 00:24:28,486
they honestly don't care about human beings
as people, as idividuals.
302
00:24:30,326 --> 00:24:35,647
And under these terms, all education searching for something else,
has to be forbbiden.
303
00:24:37,399 --> 00:24:42,491
<i>The truth is that the essence of the Prussian school
is immersed within our school structure.<i>
304
00:24:42,997 --> 00:24:46,854
<i>Standardized tests, division by age,
compulsory classes,</i>
305
00:24:47,183 --> 00:24:51,189
curricula disconnected from reality,
the qualification system,</i>
306
00:24:51,797 --> 00:24:55,422
<i>pressure on the teachers and children,
the reward and punishment system,</i>
307
00:24:55,752 --> 00:25:00,339
<i>strict time-tables, enclosure and separation from
the community, verticalist structure.<i>
308
00:25:01,419 --> 00:25:04,653
<i>All these still form part of 21st Century schools.<i>
309
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,632
Schools are shut away from the external world.
310
00:25:10,115 --> 00:25:13,577
<i>I was explaining the title of my book "From school maps
to the territory of education "</i>
311
00:25:14,144 --> 00:25:19,014
<i>in reference to the fable narrated by
Borges about the cartographer </i>
312
00:25:19,632 --> 00:25:23,443
<i>who begins drawing a map of a certain territory</i>
313
00:25:24,107 --> 00:25:27,527
and becomes determined to do it perfectly.
314
00:25:28,557 --> 00:25:31,944
The map ends up replacing the territory.
315
00:25:32,722 --> 00:25:35,708
So today, schools are boxed in,
enclosed inside the map.
316
00:25:36,112 --> 00:25:39,641
What do they teach? Concepts that are on the map,
not in the territory.
317
00:25:40,279 --> 00:25:45,733
<i>School in not a synonym of education. School could be
an old map of knowledge.</i>
318
00:25:45,942 --> 00:25:49,385
<i>But education is the territory where
all learning takes place.</i>
319
00:25:55,320 --> 00:26:00,356
<i>What makes a good education ? Getting the most children
to achieve quality standards?<i>
320
00:26:01,073 --> 00:26:03,945
<i>Giving them tools and concepts
they are not interested in</i>
321
00:26:04,052 --> 00:26:06,209
<i>so that they can overcome obstacles imposed by others?</i>
322
00:26:07,062 --> 00:26:10,248
<i>Wasn't the goal of education to attain
a good standard of living?</i>
323
00:26:12,298 --> 00:26:15,126
<i>For a moment let's forget everything we
know about education,</i>
324
00:26:15,453 --> 00:26:17,426
<i>the way we understand education,</i>
325
00:26:18,452 --> 00:26:22,899
<i>everything we've been told we have to learn in life
and to teach our children.</i>
326
00:26:24,435 --> 00:26:26,948
To begin to oserve everything,
327
00:26:28,182 --> 00:26:30,624
inspecting it as if we've never seen it before.
328
00:26:31,236 --> 00:26:34,630
In other words every action, attitude, habit.
329
00:26:34,991 --> 00:26:39,083
If we weren't doing everything as we do so, just because
that's how we've always done it,
330
00:26:39,128 --> 00:26:40,190
how would we do them today?
331
00:26:40,669 --> 00:26:43,206
Right? It's like shaking your head and saying: OK,
332
00:26:44,099 --> 00:26:44,894
let's start again.
333
00:26:52,811 --> 00:26:54,136
<i>Let's start again.</i>
334
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:02,397
- Let's see. You must understand that the speech you
wrote could upset a lot of people.
335
00:27:02,470 --> 00:27:05,795
- OK, but if that's how we feel and we wrote it like that,
why can't we read it like that?
336
00:27:06,058 --> 00:27:09,019
- These are our words, what we think, What's the problem?
- Take responsability for what we wrote!
337
00:27:09,071 --> 00:27:11,395
- No, no, no wait, wait wait. </i>
<i>-(Argument)</i>
338
00:27:11,566 --> 00:27:13,825
Wait, wait a minute Martin because I know you.
339
00:27:14,002 --> 00:27:17,630
Everything upsets you in this school, I upset you,
the teachers upset you. I know you well.
340
00:27:17,841 --> 00:27:19,171
- No, you don't know me.
341
00:27:19,171 --> 00:27:22,771
- I do know you.
- No, you don't.
342
00:27:26,273 --> 00:27:31,162
"Don't follow me, follow the child"
343
00:27:32,396 --> 00:27:35,943
We don't want instructors, we want educators.
344
00:27:36,665 --> 00:27:39,335
That's easy. What's difficult is
345
00:27:39,568 --> 00:27:43,366
helping to bring about the normal development of a person.
346
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,766
If I want to achieve that, I have to know
the intrinsic human being.
347
00:27:48,942 --> 00:27:50,815
What potentials does he bring along?
348
00:27:51,282 --> 00:27:54,228
At what ages does he produce what potentials?
349
00:27:57,431 --> 00:28:00,731
But, but, he isn't keeping up with the child,
not observing him.
350
00:28:01,073 --> 00:28:07,152
He doesn't really know the child, not each one in particular.
Instead, he knows a lot of theory.
351
00:28:07,361 --> 00:28:13,427
So, it's like an adult who knows what the child has to do,
but who's a little blinded - concerning reality.
352
00:28:14,209 --> 00:28:16,813
In other words, the core of education is the child.
353
00:28:17,044 --> 00:28:20,634
So, if education is thought of from the requirements of the child
354
00:28:21,011 --> 00:28:24,258
not from our own needs as adults.
355
00:28:29,851 --> 00:28:37,994
Children are born with this ability to create, they are
creative and observant and curious.
356
00:28:38,507 --> 00:28:40,958
And at school two things can happen:
357
00:28:41,446 --> 00:28:47,486
either to accompany this process and stimulate activities
which will develop this ability, or to thwart it.
358
00:28:47,982 --> 00:28:52,231
In fact, we could say that the human being
has a tendency towards learning.
359
00:28:53,012 --> 00:28:56,960
We can even say more, that learning is not a human virtue.
360
00:28:57,738 --> 00:28:59,938
Even more, that he cannot not learn.
361
00:29:00,786 --> 00:29:04,482
See for yourself. He is constantly asking you
"why this? why that?"
362
00:29:04,547 --> 00:29:09,031
It´s not that you have to make him want to ask
questions, they are in his essence.
363
00:29:11,725 --> 00:29:16,176
It's enough that he has sensorial organs
and can discern, right?
364
00:29:16,541 --> 00:29:23,733
That he has a brain and can think, reason,
imagine, create, fantasize.
365
00:29:24,390 --> 00:29:27,231
But school does exactly the opposite, it silences him.
366
00:29:32,792 --> 00:29:37,594
Thus, if you pay attention, as children
gradually grow older,
367
00:29:37,594 --> 00:29:40,147
they begin to loose their curiosity and keenness to learn.
368
00:29:40,247 --> 00:29:41,515
A 12 year old child
369
00:29:42,705 --> 00:29:45,610
will rarely read a book after class,
370
00:29:46,390 --> 00:29:48,356
only a minority does so.
371
00:29:48,868 --> 00:29:55,488
Why? Because he is totally fed up with being told
what he should or shouldn't do,
372
00:29:55,799 --> 00:29:57,940
and because he's lost all interest in learning.
373
00:29:59,288 --> 00:30:04,303
<i>A child's mind has learning qualities which are
qualitatively superior to those of an adult </i>
374
00:30:04,966 --> 00:30:08,800
<i>because it is naturally made to discern
anything it comes across</i>
375
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:12,416
<i>and this is how the mind creates and builds itself.</i>
376
00:30:15,216 --> 00:30:17,591
<i>In very few years he learns to control his body,</i>
377
00:30:17,934 --> 00:30:22,932
<i>is able to communicate in various languages, understands the rules
of nature and the characteristics of his culture.</i>
378
00:30:23,710 --> 00:30:27,271
<i>All this complex and wonderful process
takes place unconsciously.</i>
379
00:30:27,802 --> 00:30:30,215
<i>He learns it all alone and with minimal effort.</i>
380
00:30:31,981 --> 00:30:36,727
Of all the things we learned at school, even when
we did learn a lot at school,
381
00:30:37,578 --> 00:30:40,602
very few of them are actually necessary in daily life.
382
00:30:41,587 --> 00:30:46,392
It's possible that school is convenient, but I don't think
school is necessary.
383
00:30:47,002 --> 00:30:51,952
I believe it can be very, or even too, convenient for society,
but we can live without it.
384
00:30:52,465 --> 00:30:59,308
Because we can live without knowing about logarithms, but we can't
live without knowing how to relate to other people,
385
00:30:59,408 --> 00:31:03,102
or knowing how to walk, or how to use a tool.
386
00:31:03,838 --> 00:31:06,359
Children learn all these things through play.
387
00:31:09,991 --> 00:31:13,259
<i>Since birth they have the ability
to build and shape themselves,</i>
388
00:31:13,734 --> 00:31:15,613
<i>learning from everything that surrounds them,</i>
389
00:31:16,176 --> 00:31:18,640
<i>through play and exploration of the world.</i>
390
00:31:22,164 --> 00:31:28,172
They absorb culture, they take on
their parents' culture,
391
00:31:28,538 --> 00:31:30,380
you can see this inclusively in language.
392
00:31:31,195 --> 00:31:37,177
A human being's cultural make-up includes numbers and
letters and words, so he learns them.
393
00:31:37,989 --> 00:31:40,880
Just as he learns to walk, because adults walk.
394
00:31:41,185 --> 00:31:44,316
Therefore, when a human being is born,
395
00:31:45,186 --> 00:31:48,699
his biology doesn't force him to be human.
396
00:31:49,835 --> 00:31:53,176
He needs to be born into a human environment.
397
00:31:55,325 --> 00:31:58,733
<i>Everything that surrounds us plays a leading
role in our learning process.</i>
398
00:31:59,514 --> 00:32:02,734
<i>Moments spent together, our family's outlook.</i>
399
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,333
<i>Emotions, preferences, beliefs.</i>
400
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,267
<i>Everything is part of that environment
in which we construct ourselves.</i>
401
00:32:10,504 --> 00:32:11,638
<i>The question, then, is this</i>
402
00:32:12,085 --> 00:32:16,514
<i>What kind of environment do we offer our children
for adults to develop in this way?<i>
403
00:32:16,791 --> 00:32:20,136
Because a child enters a dogmatic environment
404
00:32:20,136 --> 00:32:26,150
"Sit here", "Remain seated in this row for 6 or 7 hours"
How awful!
405
00:32:26,250 --> 00:32:33,961
If we have a family in which the web of affection is extremely
weak, and violence levels are very high,
406
00:32:34,744 --> 00:32:38,194
that child will probably be a very aggresive one,
407
00:32:38,874 --> 00:32:44,298
It won't be violent for sure, I'm not saying that,
but we are saying that
408
00:32:44,466 --> 00:32:47,712
in a violent environment, violence can easily reproduce itself.
409
00:32:48,013 --> 00:32:50,357
The child will give what it gets.
410
00:32:51,646 --> 00:32:57,057
That's why we must attain much more loving, sound
relationships in the classroom.
411
00:32:58,025 --> 00:33:04,294
<i> Studies indicate that nowadays at the age of 5,
98% of children could be regarded as geniuses.</i>
412
00:33:05,155 --> 00:33:10,308
<i>They are curious, creative, and are able to think in
a variety of ways, to solve problems,</i>
413
00:33:10,843 --> 00:33:12,376
<i>that's to say, they have an open mind.</i>
414
00:33:13,839 --> 00:33:18,186
<i>The problem is that fifteen years on only 10% of
those children maintain those abilities.</i>
415
00:33:21,167 --> 00:33:24,441
I mean, what I'm saying is that
beyond the mind itself,
416
00:33:24,607 --> 00:33:26,692
from the conscious world, we are all geniuses.
417
00:33:27,278 --> 00:33:31,640
And actually, what the teacher has to learn
is that his students,
418
00:33:32,159 --> 00:33:36,159
should be able to open up their minds allowing all that
knowledge, creativity and geniality
419
00:33:36,159 --> 00:33:38,870
we all have inside to appear.
420
00:33:38,970 --> 00:33:44,024
If we look at humankind's great men
and women,
421
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:51,517
they have all been big dreamers, ergo
have had a huge imagination.
422
00:33:53,150 --> 00:33:57,530
<i>As human beings we are the result of thousands of years
of natural adaptation and evolution.</i>
423
00:33:58,237 --> 00:34:03,486
<i>We carry all those characteristics which have allowed us
to survive, convert ourselves and grow.</i>
424
00:34:04,115 --> 00:34:08,933
<i>From the desire to eat when we are hungry, to the child's
internal curiosity to explore the world.</i>
425
00:34:10,449 --> 00:34:13,728
<i>This potential is waiting for us to allow it to
manifest itself.</i>
426
00:34:14,541 --> 00:34:16,834
<i>We see this in childrens' spontaneous play,</i>
427
00:34:17,236 --> 00:34:21,783
<i>in today's adolescents through their rebelliousness and
their need of changing reallity.</i>
428
00:34:22,907 --> 00:34:26,446
<i>Why do we insist on killing their spontaneity
and punishing their rebelliousness,</i>
429
00:34:26,611 --> 00:34:32,510
<i>when these are simply characteristics that show us that they
are trying to develop their natural, human inner needs?</i>
430
00:34:33,228 --> 00:34:36,498
The child has an inner teacher, specially in the early stages,
431
00:34:37,195 --> 00:34:41,851
that drives him to learn, to discover, to move,
432
00:34:41,988 --> 00:34:45,505
that encourages him to participate, to work, to repeat behaviours,
433
00:34:45,599 --> 00:34:49,878
that moves him to decide when he wants to stop repeating
something because he has conquered it.
434
00:34:50,284 --> 00:34:57,062
Observing how children perform, we discovered that
they use all the criteria of a notorious researcher,
435
00:34:57,233 --> 00:35:02,625
exactly the same ones. Naturally, with different
levels of complexity, right?
436
00:35:02,822 --> 00:35:05,770
But no child exists that isn't a systematic observer,
437
00:35:06,755 --> 00:35:11,495
there is no observant little girl that doesn't
end up experimenting.
438
00:35:12,602 --> 00:35:15,132
What can we do to make them more creative?
They already are!
439
00:35:15,345 --> 00:35:19,635
All we have to do is offer them the possibility to
articulate their creativeness
440
00:35:20,917 --> 00:35:21,857
in different ways.
441
00:35:23,738 --> 00:35:27,621
If they keep doing this, tomorrow they can become scientists,
442
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:29,833
they will be artists.
443
00:35:30,854 --> 00:35:31,854
Let them be.
444
00:35:35,654 --> 00:35:38,734
- Stop it! Come on Martin, there's no need,
what will you gain with this?
445
00:35:38,834 --> 00:35:44,149
- They're questioning the marking system, for example.
They say that we only care about final marks.
446
00:35:44,249 --> 00:35:46,827
That we don't care if they study or not,
if they learn or not.
447
00:35:46,827 --> 00:35:48,207
- Come on, Martin.
448
00:35:48,207 --> 00:35:51,230
- Ok, so what do I gain with this? It just feels good!
- Why are you so stubborn?
449
00:35:51,230 --> 00:35:55,643
- And, whatsmore, we are making them compete
amongst themselves, in a way.
450
00:35:55,643 --> 00:35:58,844
- Do you think so too?
451
00:35:58,844 --> 00:36:02,847
- Look, I don't think that their proposal is so mistaken,
all that far off.
452
00:36:02,847 --> 00:36:06,424
Clearly something about the school structure
is harming them.
453
00:36:06,424 --> 00:36:10,532
- Look, Javier, I think that what harms children today
is society itself.
454
00:36:10,532 --> 00:36:15,030
And with today's society, the best thing that could happen
to them is to go to school. Don't you think?
455
00:36:15,030 --> 00:36:18,030
- Ok, but this is pretty strong.
- Yes, I know, but...
456
00:36:18,030 --> 00:36:20,033
- Sorry! - Yes.
457
00:36:21,408 --> 00:36:24,775
- This is everything I learned in five years at school.
458
00:36:25,534 --> 00:36:27,753
D'you know what's going to happen to all this?
459
00:36:27,753 --> 00:36:29,306
I'll forget it all.
460
00:36:30,523 --> 00:36:31,823
In fact,
461
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,000
I've already forgotten it.
462
00:36:38,992 --> 00:36:48,783
"Studying doesn't consist of devouring ideas,
but of creating and recreating them."
463
00:36:49,145 --> 00:36:56,279
So this is how education comes about, plugging more information
because we believe that information is necessary.
464
00:36:56,279 --> 00:36:58,538
The question I ask myself is:
465
00:36:58,538 --> 00:37:03,638
How much do we remember from what they taught us
in primary school, for example?
466
00:37:02,538 --> 00:37:05,416
How much do we remember from middle school?
467
00:37:05,991 --> 00:37:09,524
But with this manner of presenting it,
nobody feels motivated.
468
00:37:10,532 --> 00:37:16,749
And the student thinks that all he has to do is
repeat, repeat, repeat ... until it sticks.
469
00:37:17,663 --> 00:37:18,887
So repeat, please:
470
00:37:19,370 --> 00:37:25,122
"Actinium ac 3 metal,
471
00:37:25,345 --> 00:37:29,953
"Actinium ac 3 metal"
472
00:37:30,053 --> 00:37:30,618
So.
473
00:37:32,568 --> 00:37:35,120
When I repeat, when I repeat
474
00:37:35,835 --> 00:37:38,037
something they tell me I have to repeat,
475
00:37:38,411 --> 00:37:41,225
I simply become a repeater.
476
00:37:41,578 --> 00:37:43,749
"deoxyribonucleic acid,
477
00:37:44,175 --> 00:37:47,882
deoxyribonucleic acid,
478
00:37:48,369 --> 00:37:51,572
deoxyribonucleic acid"
479
00:37:52,131 --> 00:37:58,228
Whether I understand or not isn't important, because what matters
is that I say it in the same manner.
480
00:37:59,407 --> 00:38:01,283
"deoxyribonucleic acid,
481
00:38:01,733 --> 00:38:03,825
deoxyribonucleic acid",
482
00:38:04,344 --> 00:38:09,868
If I demand more from a child than what he can give,
I start to generate stress in him.
483
00:38:11,775 --> 00:38:13,876
"deoxyribonucleic acid,
484
00:38:14,012 --> 00:38:16,086
deoxyribonucleic acid,
485
00:38:16,242 --> 00:38:18,028
"deoxyribonucleic acid"
486
00:38:22,002 --> 00:38:25,384
Learning becomes a tiresome process,
487
00:38:25,921 --> 00:38:27,297
a difficult process,
488
00:38:28,439 --> 00:38:29,798
and I stop learning.
489
00:38:30,161 --> 00:38:33,347
Everything that you could learn at school
from day to day,
490
00:38:34,575 --> 00:38:41,479
fades into the background if it's not your own decision,
if it's not your own choice.
491
00:38:42,554 --> 00:38:48,706
It's only cold facts, simply words that will
disappear over time.
492
00:38:50,801 --> 00:38:55,571
<i>Information or knowledge can be stored in our brain,
a book or a computer. </i>
493
00:38:57,049 --> 00:39:00,436
<i>But understanding is a tool that grows constantly,</i>
494
00:39:00,932 --> 00:39:03,859
<i>with unique characteristics that vary
depending on the individual.</i>
495
00:39:04,870 --> 00:39:07,934
<i>It involves creating and establishing
relationships between criteria,</i>
496
00:39:08,768 --> 00:39:12,541
<i>so as to solve problems and to construct new knowledge.</i>
497
00:39:13,912 --> 00:39:19,253
The children were not robots who simply copied or repeated
things just because; there really was more
498
00:39:19,958 --> 00:39:23,785
awareness on their behalf, of what they were doing.
499
00:39:24,758 --> 00:39:31,857
That concept will get to him, he will absorb it somehow,
through his own experience.
500
00:39:32,728 --> 00:39:36,562
If the learning process is not enjoyable,
then there is no true learning.
501
00:39:36,662 --> 00:39:40,560
And above all, the genius that every child bears inside
cannot reveal itself,
502
00:39:40,704 --> 00:39:43,713
and cannot enrich the rest of the class,
nor the teacher himself.
503
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:51,759
<i>Real learning can only be born out of interest, will, curiosity,</i>
504
00:39:52,380 --> 00:39:54,680
<i>and it's origin lies beyond the boundaries of reason.</i>
505
00:39:55,870 --> 00:39:58,564
<i>It's so much more than analysing or relating concepts.</i>
506
00:39:59,260 --> 00:40:04,902
<i>Learning implies a deep process, where relationships
between a person and the environment are created.</i>
507
00:40:06,865 --> 00:40:09,411
Because there is a neuroscience principle which says:
508
00:40:09,863 --> 00:40:12,370
"What the human brain likes best is to know,
509
00:40:13,296 --> 00:40:17,591
but to know with enjoyment and pleasure,
which is a semblance of play."
510
00:40:18,199 --> 00:40:22,326
We began at the emotional brain,
to then reach the logical brain,
511
00:40:23,594 --> 00:40:26,416
and that logic is valid, good, more complete.
512
00:40:27,559 --> 00:40:32,323
It's wonderful to observe ...
the moment of discovery,
513
00:40:32,896 --> 00:40:36,011
which is the precise instant of learning.
That child will never forget that moment
514
00:40:37,135 --> 00:40:40,745
in which he came to understand : why.
515
00:40:42,566 --> 00:40:46,592
<i>Formerly, knowledge could only be found in
libraries or universities,</i>
516
00:40:47,486 --> 00:40:49,385
<i>access to them was vital for learning.</i>
517
00:40:50,771 --> 00:40:56,496
<i>Today, free access to information, virtual libraries,
collective structuring of knowledge,</i>
518
00:40:57,216 --> 00:40:59,871
<i>not only allows for the possibility for everyone to </i>
519
00:41:00,551 --> 00:41:04,161
<i>obtain that knowledge openly and plurally,
but it is also updated constantly.</i>
520
00:41:05,726 --> 00:41:09,346
What we could learn at school today might
521
00:41:10,543 --> 00:41:15,672
- perhaps in four years' time when the
child leaves school -
522
00:41:16,051 --> 00:41:18,125
be totally out of date.
523
00:41:18,771 --> 00:41:22,471
Education, through scholarization, fell within
the confines of the school
524
00:41:22,874 --> 00:41:26,771
and we lost touch with nature.
525
00:41:27,212 --> 00:41:29,325
Nowadays, we read the criteria published in books,
526
00:41:30,938 --> 00:41:34,169
and the problem is that since many of them are true,
527
00:41:36,172 --> 00:41:38,012
why would I argue with them?
528
00:41:38,343 --> 00:41:42,809
But by doing so, we distort the educational process,
which is of discovery,
529
00:41:42,809 --> 00:41:45,263
not merely the learning of truths.
530
00:41:45,363 --> 00:41:49,961
Things are not going to be presented as certainties,
they're going to be introduced,
531
00:41:50,911 --> 00:41:58,179
and at the same time will be there for questioning,
for discussing them together, right?
532
00:41:59,756 --> 00:42:03,500
HOMEMADE BALL
533
00:42:16,827 --> 00:42:22,303
NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE
534
00:42:36,574 --> 00:42:38,174
BOUGHT BALL
535
00:42:40,203 --> 00:42:42,660
LOST BALL
536
00:42:48,047 --> 00:42:53,710
"What we have to learn, we learn by doing."
537
00:42:55,010 --> 00:43:00,490
At all levels, human beings always learn what they do.
538
00:43:01,630 --> 00:43:04,459
They have to make an effort to learn what they do not do.
539
00:43:05,727 --> 00:43:09,124
First comes action, and then cognition.
540
00:43:09,947 --> 00:43:13,654
And yet sometimes we consider movement as something
negative, whereas
541
00:43:13,974 --> 00:43:16,973
it turns out that mobility is very much linked to cognition.
542
00:43:17,523 --> 00:43:20,874
Play is a challenge into the unknown.
543
00:43:21,441 --> 00:43:25,985
A challenge as to what may happen, because when a child plays
or faces this,
544
00:43:26,210 --> 00:43:29,231
he sets out on the principle that he is
setting something in motion,
545
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,984
In education we are always setting something in motion.
546
00:43:32,958 --> 00:43:35,020
I mean, we go to school to learn,
547
00:43:35,664 --> 00:43:39,900
obviously we don't go there just to play,
548
00:43:40,428 --> 00:43:42,577
but playing ... playing you learn a lot.
549
00:43:58,245 --> 00:44:00,915
We study by venturing out into nature,
550
00:44:01,148 --> 00:44:06,951
searching, exploring, finding, experimenting.
551
00:44:07,503 --> 00:44:12,702
When working in connection with nature
a child can do anything.
552
00:44:14,541 --> 00:44:19,199
Going to that school is a pleasure, because every day
we have so many things
553
00:44:19,299 --> 00:44:25,164
to experiment, to investigate
to be thankful we are alive.
554
00:44:25,677 --> 00:44:31,596
The educator's job then will at all times consist of,
revealing mysteries, evincing situations
555
00:44:32,829 --> 00:44:38,456
in nature that, although already described by science,
are not explained for the pupil.
556
00:44:38,877 --> 00:44:43,882
In such a way, that the pupil will be amazed by them
and will try to find explanations to them.
557
00:44:44,771 --> 00:44:49,605
For decades there has been a movement
called "active school",
558
00:44:49,705 --> 00:44:53,847
where the child performs and produces,
away from his desk.
559
00:44:54,554 --> 00:44:59,178
But this is nothing new, it was written by Piaget
in the 50's, it simply
560
00:45:00,050 --> 00:45:03,451
isn't put into practice because of sheer laziness.
561
00:45:05,528 --> 00:45:09,076
<i>In the beginning of the 20th Century, various
new pedagogical methods appeared,</i>
562
00:45:09,851 --> 00:45:14,900
<i>exponents from various areas of the developed world
produced experiences centered in action,</i>
563
00:45:15,485 --> 00:45:18,474
<i>freedom, and the construction of autonomous
learning processes,</i>
564
00:45:19,577 --> 00:45:22,010
<i>rethinking the whole structure of traditional schooling .</i>
565
00:45:23,472 --> 00:45:27,537
<i>But by mid-century, all these transforming ideas
began to fall into oblivion</i>
566
00:45:27,537 --> 00:45:29,787
<i>because of fear of totalitarian states.</i>
567
00:45:29,887 --> 00:45:34,081
Well, the method is focused on the child being
the learner, totally.
568
00:45:35,217 --> 00:45:39,781
Naturally there have to be physical objects,
569
00:45:39,781 --> 00:45:43,136
tangible objects for the child to manipulate,
to experiment with.
570
00:45:43,236 --> 00:45:48,685
Everything in the elementary school is operative, everything,
everything is tangible material.
571
00:45:48,886 --> 00:45:55,447
As he goes along, the child himself realizes if he makes a mistake,
because the material itself is self-correcting.
572
00:45:55,447 --> 00:45:59,625
Normally the adult should not be the one
to correct the child.
573
00:46:00,055 --> 00:46:04,582
It's the child himself who has to
correct himself.
574
00:46:04,582 --> 00:46:08,682
Nowadays we also see a lot of correction
by the other children.
575
00:46:07,582 --> 00:46:11,546
I believe that from an educational point of view
errors and mistakes are welcome.
576
00:46:11,733 --> 00:46:15,314
In fact, science has had more errors and
mistakes than correct answers.
577
00:46:16,201 --> 00:46:20,446
It does move forward, we know that it advances
when we meet success,
578
00:46:21,286 --> 00:46:25,211
but it's the mistakes that allow scientists
to move forward.
579
00:46:26,036 --> 00:46:31,988
Seeing children say: "It doesn't matter if I make
mistakes because I'm learning,
580
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:38,254
because noone has to win here,
we are all here to improve."
581
00:46:39,010 --> 00:46:44,549
<i>The inventor of the light bulb experienced more than
one thousand failures before getting it to work.</i>
582
00:46:45,714 --> 00:46:49,663
<i>When a journalist asked him what failing
a thousand times felt like, he replied:</i>
583
00:46:51,017 --> 00:46:55,275
<i>"I didn't fail a thousand times, the electric bulb
is a thousand-step-invention".</i>
584
00:46:57,220 --> 00:47:02,731
<i>Just as with scientific discoveries, informal education
is the result of a deeply chaotic process,</i>
585
00:47:03,477 --> 00:47:09,349
<i>in which man seeks a causal, logical order,
alternating between chaos and order.</i>
586
00:47:10,599 --> 00:47:16,447
<i>But this learning method is born from a question within the chaos,
not from an answer in the orderliness.</i>
587
00:47:18,031 --> 00:47:22,123
When we are born, society
588
00:47:23,014 --> 00:47:26,744
makes us more ignorant because it provides us
with all the answers.
589
00:47:27,468 --> 00:47:33,831
It gives us prefabricated answers, prefabricated in
philosophy, in politics and even in religions.
590
00:47:36,071 --> 00:47:39,450
Therefore they destroy questioning and the ability to learn.
591
00:47:40,788 --> 00:47:45,663
I believe that very briefly we could say that
schools are answer-oriented.
592
00:47:46,910 --> 00:47:51,617
Instead, educational processes that take place outside
the school environment, and also within it,
593
00:47:52,158 --> 00:47:54,375
are oriented towards questioning, inquiring,
594
00:47:54,624 --> 00:47:58,886
where the answer does appear, but is not
central to the process.
595
00:47:59,652 --> 00:48:05,659
What must an educator do, then? He must aid in the
unveiling, not impose an answer.
596
00:48:06,569 --> 00:48:10,610
<i>The importance of questioning has existed since
the birth of philosophy in Ancient Greece,</i>
597
00:48:11,443 --> 00:48:14,642
<i>where learning emerged from rethinking
and cross-examination.</i>
598
00:48:15,775 --> 00:48:18,870
<i>But if such is the nature of learning,</i>
599
00:48:18,870 --> 00:48:24,170
<i>why do we insist on structuring, limiting,
conditioning, classifying it?</i>
600
00:48:24,270 --> 00:48:26,022
CURRICULUM PLANNING
601
00:48:26,022 --> 00:48:30,225
This is how all living creatures learn, through interaction
with others and with the environment,
602
00:48:30,225 --> 00:48:33,858
not through a previous curriculum designed by someone.
603
00:48:33,958 --> 00:48:41,861
School time, then, is a misleading time, in that
it forces us to believe in a fixed plan,
604
00:48:43,251 --> 00:48:47,833
the idea that the pupil will make progress according to
the way the program has been planned.
605
00:48:48,987 --> 00:48:51,566
In this manner, schooling is linear,
606
00:48:52,636 --> 00:48:54,388
step one, step two, step three,
607
00:48:54,849 --> 00:48:57,308
and the tenth step is going to be after the ninth.
608
00:48:58,147 --> 00:49:02,175
But a learning process is different,
a person might make
609
00:49:02,275 --> 00:49:07,305
progressive, linear advances, one, two, three
and then jump to the tenth.
610
00:49:08,602 --> 00:49:13,762
<i>The curriculum is a neat guide for constructing knowledge
based on previous experience.</i>
611
00:49:14,823 --> 00:49:18,379
<i>But if learning is characterized by such
diverse and individual proceedings,</i>
612
00:49:19,628 --> 00:49:23,006
<i>why force it to reach for goals?</i>
613
00:49:25,136 --> 00:49:33,104
Usually educational goals in the world today are
set from beyond the student, the child:
614
00:49:34,018 --> 00:49:42,377
"He/she is expected to be a good citizen" "He/she is expected to be
able to participate in this competitive society", etc.,
615
00:49:42,970 --> 00:49:50,836
Therefore, the child begins to understand that human beings'
actions are not born from an inner force,
616
00:49:51,253 --> 00:49:56,348
or from a connection with nature, from perception,
from a sensitivity for life,
617
00:49:56,606 --> 00:50:02,921
but, that they are motivated by something from the outside.
I study to pass an exam,
618
00:50:03,253 --> 00:50:07,992
I don't read to learn, I don't care for animals because I like them,
619
00:50:08,030 --> 00:50:10,713
No, no, it's just that right now animals aren't the subject,
something else is.
620
00:50:11,405 --> 00:50:20,068
If I don't stir their interest, if I don't develop their creative areas,
I'm generating robots with goals
621
00:50:20,176 --> 00:50:27,523
and therefore some 60 or 70 per cent of the children
with a wonderful potential will remain behind.
622
00:50:27,975 --> 00:50:29,869
- Repeat again:
623
00:50:30,693 --> 00:50:34,438
"Actinium ac 3 metal""
624
00:50:35,199 --> 00:50:35,362
Again
625
00:50:35,217 --> 00:50:35,393
"Actinium ac 3 metal",
626
00:50:35,776 --> 00:50:39,045
Actinium ac 3 metal,
627
00:50:39,473 --> 00:50:42,996
Actinium ac 3 metal,
628
00:50:43,524 --> 00:50:47,201
Actinium ac 3 metal"
629
00:50:47,739 --> 00:50:53,307
I do this because this is how I'll get a prize,
I'll have a car like this and like that.
630
00:50:53,529 --> 00:50:57,890
And if this means I have to speculate
or that I have to step over anyone,
631
00:50:58,026 --> 00:51:02,630
that I have to lie and trample over whoever
is beside me, I don't care.
632
00:51:03,870 --> 00:51:10,547
What kind of educational relationship does this lead to? One
that lays emphasis on obtaining results.
633
00:51:11,030 --> 00:51:16,148
<i>As we grow up, school and society drive us to take on
external motivations to achieve our goals,</i>
634
00:51:17,241 --> 00:51:21,849
<i>and we can barely comprehend that someone would do
anything without expecting something in return,</i>
635
00:51:21,849 --> 00:51:25,047
<i>rather than their own pleasure.</i>
636
00:51:25,147 --> 00:51:28,269
<i>But a small child doesn't aim for anything,</i>
637
00:51:29,175 --> 00:51:33,620
<i>he simply enjoys growing up, he walks just for
the pleasure of walking and exploring,</i>
638
00:51:33,860 --> 00:51:37,672
<i>and this brings about his development,</i>
639
00:51:38,497 --> 00:51:42,573
<i>his motivation is not in the final objective
nor in the result, it's in the process.</i>
640
00:51:43,178 --> 00:51:47,725
It means that we don't have any specific goals
regarding the childrens' lives,
641
00:51:48,337 --> 00:51:53,686
that they should learn specific things, that they should
behave a certain way, those are not our goals.
642
00:51:54,724 --> 00:52:00,959
The curricula we manage here is a program
that focuses on a process,
643
00:52:01,332 --> 00:52:05,811
and it's the child who handles that process,
so that he has it, he knows it.
644
00:52:06,059 --> 00:52:09,403
Therefore the teacher is not the star of the show,
645
00:52:10,147 --> 00:52:13,876
and the content is not the protagonist,
the protagonist is the child who,
646
00:52:14,324 --> 00:52:17,637
accompanied by an adult who acts as intermediary,
647
00:52:17,637 --> 00:52:22,596
comes into contact with knowledge, and the knowledge
itself entices and operates on it's own.
648
00:52:22,596 --> 00:52:28,012
And this, as I was saying, is how the child's
own timing is respected,
649
00:52:28,012 --> 00:52:34,661
I mean, there´s no fundamental pressure obliging the child
to reach a certain goal in a certain period of time.
650
00:52:34,661 --> 00:52:40,701
If one of my goals is that they have to learn to write
their name during this term
651
00:52:41,129 --> 00:52:44,556
I am going to be worried, and instead of seeing
the child, I will only see the goal,
652
00:52:45,788 --> 00:52:47,650
and I will try to adjust the child to the goal.
653
00:52:48,396 --> 00:52:52,283
If what I want is for the child to learn and to live,
654
00:52:53,517 --> 00:52:56,233
let's say, spontaneously, he is going
to pick it all up anyway
655
00:52:56,222 --> 00:53:00,539
and I won't be worrying about it, and we will
be able to flow and enjoy the process.
656
00:53:01,321 --> 00:53:06,000
In the end, not only did the children enjoy it all
- I mean, in 20 years' time
657
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,277
they will have fond memories of their schooldays,
which is a lot -
658
00:53:10,677 --> 00:53:14,733
but they will also perform better,
659
00:53:15,312 --> 00:53:18,243
and with better long term results.
660
00:53:25,585 --> 00:53:27,964
- Micaela, tell me, why are you so insistent about that speech?
661
00:53:28,474 --> 00:53:31,033
- Because I wanted to express myself, write about what
I think, what I feel.
662
00:53:31,278 --> 00:53:36,805
- My dear, everyone likes doing what they feel like, and
we often have to do things that we don't like.
663
00:53:37,102 --> 00:53:39,210
- No, I'm sorry, but I don't agree.
664
00:53:39,310 --> 00:53:43,131
- Ok, I understand you but...
- Listen Micaela, don't you want to graduate,
665
00:53:43,131 --> 00:53:45,514
get a degree, a profession, be somebody?
666
00:53:45,514 --> 00:53:46,164
- But...
667
00:53:47,056 --> 00:53:48,870
I already am somebody.
668
00:53:54,500 --> 00:53:58,598
"In fact, there's only the act of loving, (...)
It means to give life, to increase its vitality.
669
00:53:58,598 --> 00:54:03,677
It's a process that develops and intensifies
itself simultaneously."
670
00:54:03,667 --> 00:54:07,425
So there are two basic pedagogical paths.
671
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:12,422
One is "I have to adapt the child to culture",
672
00:54:12,822 --> 00:54:15,756
and the other one that says "I have to adapt
culture to the child".
673
00:54:17,271 --> 00:54:22,137
In other words pedagogical right and left,
it's that simple.
674
00:54:24,134 --> 00:54:26,772
Somewhere in the middle must lie the truth.
675
00:54:27,770 --> 00:54:32,824
<i>Schooling built its foundations on a fundamental
idea that trascends all its framework:</i>
676
00:54:33,344 --> 00:54:35,437
<i>the notion that children are empty,</i>
677
00:54:36,413 --> 00:54:40,233
<i>and consequently, their individuality can be
broken down and rebuilt,</i>
678
00:54:40,736 --> 00:54:42,995
<i>intervened according to external needs.</i>
679
00:54:44,643 --> 00:54:47,281
<i>The child has been regarded as a research object,</i>
680
00:54:47,526 --> 00:54:51,462
<i>a rat, inside the biggest socialization
laboratory in history,</i>
681
00:54:51,895 --> 00:54:54,759
<i>whose main goal was to shape the human being.</i>
682
00:54:57,637 --> 00:55:03,048
This is so very human, isn't it, believing that the forest
will be damaged if we don't take care of it?
683
00:55:03,071 --> 00:55:06,749
Leaving it alone is enough, always.
684
00:55:07,029 --> 00:55:10,141
All the forest we still have left is because humankind
has not interfered.
685
00:55:11,506 --> 00:55:16,652
But humankind thinks that by intervening,
it will make more, it will do it better.
686
00:55:18,240 --> 00:55:23,376
<i> A seed contains all the information that
a being needs to develop.</i>
687
00:55:23,983 --> 00:55:27,836
<i>The environment that surrounds it has everything
that the tree needs to grow,</i>
688
00:55:28,162 --> 00:55:31,467
<i>but this development depends on
the seed´s internal structure.</i>
689
00:55:32,927 --> 00:55:37,535
<i>Every reaction to an external condition
is planned inside every single being, </i>
690
00:55:38,389 --> 00:55:40,492
<i>whether it be a tree or a human being.</i>
691
00:55:43,335 --> 00:55:46,694
<i>The formation of vital organs, bone structure,
tissues,</i>
692
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:49,096
<i>our basic characteristics</i>
693
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:52,000
<i>are the result of an internal, independent process</i>
694
00:55:52,605 --> 00:55:55,003
<i>which doesn't require human intervention,</i>
695
00:55:57,065 --> 00:56:02,203
<i>in which the mother merely provides basic resources
but doesn't conduct.</i>
696
00:56:04,915 --> 00:56:10,039
Every cell has an inner structure which allows it
to know, unconsciously,
697
00:56:10,380 --> 00:56:16,126
what it's needs are at all times, what the surrounding
environment should be like,
698
00:56:17,295 --> 00:56:23,404
so as to satisfy it's inner needs,
genetically set forth,
699
00:56:24,595 --> 00:56:28,654
so that that cell should become what it potentially is.
700
00:56:29,079 --> 00:56:32,371
In other words, the objective in life is to live and fulfill oneself,
701
00:56:32,867 --> 00:56:36,598
and in order to do this, an organism needs to be
in an environment that respects
702
00:56:37,016 --> 00:56:39,470
and satisfies it's inner needs.
703
00:56:39,909 --> 00:56:42,431
There was a gardener who loved plants so much,
704
00:56:42,852 --> 00:56:48,074
and took such special care of them, that as soon as they,
began to sprout, he would start stretching their stems.
705
00:56:49,128 --> 00:56:53,167
So what happened? They were all either deformed or they died.
706
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:58,662
In other words, growing is innate, nothing needs stretching.
707
00:56:58,797 --> 00:57:05,071
You don't have to make it do anything, you just need
to make sure it is supplied with what it needs.
708
00:57:05,597 --> 00:57:09,038
<i>In order to survive this cell has certain basic needs:</i>
709
00:57:09,532 --> 00:57:13,314
<i>food, safety, and perhaps the most important element of all,</i>
710
00:57:13,592 --> 00:57:15,662
<i>that has made all biological evolution possible,</i>
711
00:57:16,361 --> 00:57:17,361
<i>love.</i>
712
00:57:18,372 --> 00:57:23,500
Once the cell has obtained all these resources
it can begin to develop and fullfill itself.
713
00:57:24,415 --> 00:57:27,437
Love is necessary at all times during the development of life.
714
00:57:28,345 --> 00:57:31,575
<i>During gestation it provides company and
protection in the uterus</i>
715
00:57:32,088 --> 00:57:36,720
<i>then comes physical contact, emotional support,
expressions, gestures, sounds,</i>
716
00:57:36,919 --> 00:57:41,428
<i>even understanding, acceptance,
respect and trust in others.</i>
717
00:57:42,662 --> 00:57:45,562
<i>If love is vital for development and learning,</i>
718
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:52,546
<i>why do we normally try to educate with threats,
punishment, tension, forgetting all about love?</i>
719
00:57:53,535 --> 00:57:55,049
And what do we adults do?
720
00:57:55,409 --> 00:57:57,978
We have to make them do what we want,
721
00:57:58,373 --> 00:58:01,543
and that's where punishments and rewards begin:
722
00:58:01,790 --> 00:58:06,040
"No. I will evaluate you and test you, and you will
have to pass the exam, for if you don't
723
00:58:06,415 --> 00:58:12,255
those bad results will be sent to your home,
and your parents will scold you and ...
724
00:58:12,355 --> 00:58:14,667
blah, blah, blah, there will be consequences."
725
00:58:14,857 --> 00:58:16,707
We lack the ability to love,
726
00:58:17,451 --> 00:58:20,614
so our love is usually cramped.
727
00:58:20,750 --> 00:58:25,992
"I love you if you agree with me, if not I don't love you"
This is normally the way we love.
728
00:58:27,096 --> 00:58:29,560
When a person feels unloved or feels conflicted
729
00:58:30,084 --> 00:58:34,539
he re-invents himself. He talks about
himself unrealistically.
730
00:58:35,945 --> 00:58:41,272
The stronger the pain, the further
from reality does he become.
731
00:58:42,905 --> 00:58:44,947
If I'm obliged to carry out a series of things
732
00:58:45,548 --> 00:58:47,758
about which I am not at all interested
733
00:58:48,032 --> 00:58:54,643
even if I am intrinsically motivated through prizes,
punishmentes, marks or sweets,
734
00:58:55,564 --> 00:58:57,022
my needs might be different.
735
00:58:57,857 --> 00:59:01,315
But I cannot attend to my own needs because
I am obliged to do something else,
736
00:59:01,511 --> 00:59:08,221
whereby I gradually lose touch with my own resources,
my own vital force.
737
00:59:09,252 --> 00:59:12,877
<i>Basic needs are manipulated by rewards
and punishments.</i>
738
00:59:13,392 --> 00:59:17,336
<i>When we lack love and protection
we do our best to obtain them</i>
739
00:59:17,867 --> 00:59:21,881
<i>generating behaviour mechanisms
which allow us to survive.</i>
740
00:59:22,408 --> 00:59:23,503
<i>We condition ourselves.</i>
741
00:59:24,553 --> 00:59:28,729
<i>That child doesn't study to learn, nor does he
work for pleasure and fulfillment,</i>
742
00:59:29,182 --> 00:59:33,676
<i>he does so because otherwise he loses security and love,
he feels like dying.</i>
743
00:59:34,529 --> 00:59:37,842
<i>All his behaviour becomes conditioned by fear.</i>
744
00:59:38,378 --> 00:59:43,037
What takes place in schools nowadays, generally speaking,
is the spreading of fear.
745
00:59:43,792 --> 00:59:48,714
The person is limited, instead of the other way round,
and these limits are fear itself.
746
00:59:49,112 --> 00:59:52,256
In our structured minds, when we create within a belief,
747
00:59:52,550 --> 00:59:56,915
our minds avoid us abandoning this belief through fear.
748
00:59:57,196 --> 01:00:00,419
When we approach the far edge of a belief
we feel scared.
749
01:00:01,038 --> 01:00:05,267
This is a control mechanism, a mechanism
of ethical manipulatation.
750
01:00:05,731 --> 01:00:10,502
If you behave well, I grade you well.
It's a behavioral pattern,
751
01:00:11,018 --> 01:00:14,920
the great behavioral model that has
damaged our society so.
752
01:00:17,884 --> 01:00:21,018
<i>The 1913 behavioral manifesto promoted the idea</i>
753
01:00:21,118 --> 01:00:24,372
<i>of behavioral prediction and conduct control.</i>
754
01:00:25,773 --> 01:00:28,821
<i>Through experimentation with rats andwith other
animals and their conditioning,</i>
755
01:00:28,957 --> 01:00:31,189
<i>a science of social control was developed,</i>
756
01:00:31,644 --> 01:00:34,547
<i>used for planning the basis of modern schooling,</i>
757
01:00:34,845 --> 01:00:39,706
<i>publicity, political propaganda, military training
and torture practices.</i>
758
01:00:40,815 --> 01:00:43,062
<i>Mass manipulation through fear.</i>
759
01:00:48,192 --> 01:00:53,332
Everything, absolutely everything we see in our world,
is based on fear.
760
01:00:53,634 --> 01:00:57,478
Fear of change, fear of progress,
fear of being oneself,
761
01:00:57,594 --> 01:01:02,380
fear of loving, fear of revealing our true
selves to the world.
762
01:01:04,116 --> 01:01:07,444
Thus we have created a society in which
people work in jobs they don't like
763
01:01:07,551 --> 01:01:12,923
merely to acquire money, to obtain status. In other words
a society of self-deception.
764
01:01:13,452 --> 01:01:16,550
"I've got such a diploma, I've got such a degree,
I've got."
765
01:01:17,236 --> 01:01:21,595
And having is what actually disconnects us
from our true identity,
766
01:01:21,887 --> 01:01:27,075
it's what takes us back to our fear.
"I have to pretend that I am."
767
01:01:30,793 --> 01:01:34,970
Children who have been in and out
of these kinds of schools,
768
01:01:35,279 --> 01:01:39,207
cheerfully tell us that they do not feel this pressure,
769
01:01:39,608 --> 01:01:44,775
because throughout their childhood and asolescence they
have discovered that they do things for their own
770
01:01:45,138 --> 01:01:48,466
personal pleasure, as a personal treat,
for a personal aim.
771
01:01:49,002 --> 01:01:53,717
What's important is this will to live.
Without it, life
772
01:01:55,877 --> 01:01:57,455
just isn't worth it, is it?
773
01:01:57,833 --> 01:02:01,860
And children show us this will to live
which we adults have lost.
774
01:02:02,514 --> 01:02:04,782
Therefore, the first questions would have to be
775
01:02:05,820 --> 01:02:08,292
Am I taking care of this child's will to live or not?
776
01:02:08,938 --> 01:02:11,181
I mean, when the child is well cared for,
777
01:02:11,905 --> 01:02:17,467
and that means respecting his life processes
accompanied by forthcoming adults,
778
01:02:17,790 --> 01:02:22,905
with a series of limits that will help him grow strong,
where the child is well taken care of,
779
01:02:23,638 --> 01:02:28,511
the child wants to build things with others,
through love.
780
01:02:28,955 --> 01:02:32,246
If a child always does what an adult tells him to,
781
01:02:32,804 --> 01:02:34,906
the moment comes when he becomes disconnected.
782
01:02:35,242 --> 01:02:42,610
However, if they are accustomed to following their own impulses,
they remain connected to their inner selves,
783
01:02:42,938 --> 01:02:44,964
they know what they want, they know who they are.
784
01:02:47,313 --> 01:02:52,692
Children also take you by the hand and actually
show you, tell you what they need,
785
01:02:52,854 --> 01:02:58,800
it's a matter of listening to them and
collaborating in their search.
786
01:02:59,698 --> 01:03:02,964
<i>One description of living organisms
is that they are autopoietic,</i>
787
01:03:03,650 --> 01:03:06,777
<i>organisms with the ability to reproduce
themselves continously,</i>
788
01:03:07,540 --> 01:03:12,670
<i>and their inter-relationships are never instructive,
but deal with life, deployment and progress.</i>
789
01:03:13,071 --> 01:03:15,815
<i>That's to say that nature obeys no external commands,</i>
790
01:03:16,170 --> 01:03:21,396
<i>but consists merely of connected, conscious systems
developing autonomously, within apparent chaos.</i>
791
01:03:22,685 --> 01:03:27,849
In other words, stimulus isn't necessary, we don't
have to motivate children at all.
792
01:03:28,763 --> 01:03:32,834
If they want to do something they do it; and if not, well,
they don't. But they don't need motivation
793
01:03:33,783 --> 01:03:35,309
to do something that they will do well,
794
01:03:36,173 --> 01:03:37,913
because they know if they are going to do it well or not.
795
01:03:38,550 --> 01:03:45,445
The fact that they can choose and position themselves
instinctively in what they are really
796
01:03:45,752 --> 01:03:52,984
interested in, stimulates them to discover
their own, individual gifts.
797
01:03:53,795 --> 01:03:59,522
It becomes your own responsibility, instead of
the system's responsibility.
798
01:04:00,566 --> 01:04:04,359
I mean, who I want to be is my own responsibility.
799
01:04:04,790 --> 01:04:08,138
And the child becomes aware of this since very early childhood.
800
01:04:09,917 --> 01:04:13,636
<i>Cells have a membrane that separates them
from the external environment.</i>
801
01:04:14,185 --> 01:04:16,796
<i>This membrane is semipermeable, which means,</i>
802
01:04:17,232 --> 01:04:21,145
<i>that it allows in what it requires from the exterior
whenever needed.</i>
803
01:04:22,147 --> 01:04:25,985
<i> The only requirement is to have these resources
available on the outside,</i>
804
01:04:26,421 --> 01:04:30,732
<i>but whithout forcing them in and violating
the cell's safety and welfare.</i>
805
01:04:32,156 --> 01:04:36,313
<i>Thus the organism is able to create itself,
to fulfill itself.</i>
806
01:04:36,965 --> 01:04:39,392
<i>This is how we learn from culture.</i>
807
01:04:40,385 --> 01:04:43,775
<i> The debate between what is innate and what is
acquired has no final answer,</i>
808
01:04:44,529 --> 01:04:50,187
<i> because both operate in a complex interaction
that requires love and respect.</i>
809
01:04:50,698 --> 01:04:55,822
Therefore it is through creativity that an
organism expresses itself,
810
01:04:56,439 --> 01:05:02,623
it sets forth something it has constructed
whilst respecting its own needs.
811
01:05:03,239 --> 01:05:05,420
With basic understanding, it tries to discern
812
01:05:05,609 --> 01:05:09,125
what moment it is in, what it needs, what it wants,
what will stir it the most.
813
01:05:09,298 --> 01:05:15,817
Because in the end, it is the child who will take those steps,
for nobody learns through force.
814
01:05:15,930 --> 01:05:19,290
Learning isn't generated through force.
815
01:05:19,817 --> 01:05:24,390
Childhood is so very beautiful, it's pure joy.
816
01:05:25,564 --> 01:05:28,045
This is why I believe that any
817
01:05:29,117 --> 01:05:33,431
education is good if it nurtures that joy,
the child's will to live.
818
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:39,655
- Right, children, final exams next week.
819
01:05:41,372 --> 01:05:43,523
Did you read the book? It was short, it was short.
820
01:05:43,673 --> 01:05:49,207
- I didn't, Miss, the year's almost over. I've had it. What
do I want this for? I want to be a ballerina.
821
01:05:49,316 --> 01:05:52,961
None of this is of any use to me.
- Of course not, not if ballerinas don't study.
822
01:05:53,068 --> 01:05:56,484
- It will be useful to me, I'm studying
marketing, so it'll help me.
823
01:05:56,584 --> 01:05:58,330
- It's of no use to me either, Miss.
824
01:05:58,427 --> 01:06:01,979
Why do we have to spend years studying
stuff that isn't any use to anybody?
825
01:06:02,091 --> 01:06:04,779
- That's right, no use at all.
- Like the letter I wrote.
826
01:06:04,901 --> 01:06:08,559
- That letter, again! Stop it children!
- I'm interested in the letter.
827
01:06:09,880 --> 01:06:13,288
- Let's see, shh, hey hey hey, let's see.
</i><i>-(Shouting, Discussion)
828
01:06:13,388 --> 01:06:16,446
- You, and you, hey girlie, I'm talking to you!
829
01:06:16,674 --> 01:06:20,220
You two are very ungrateful. Your teachers
struggle to help you at least
830
01:06:20,220 --> 01:06:21,841
retain something, but you just don't care.
831
01:06:21,941 --> 01:06:27,581
- Now, now, stop it! Mariela enough, listen to me.
Let's see, shh. Quiet!
832
01:06:28,105 --> 01:06:31,397
- Now, Martin, please explain about the letter to me.
You too, Micaela.
833
01:06:31,619 --> 01:06:36,158
They spoke on behalf of all their classmates,
about how awful it was.
834
01:06:36,579 --> 01:06:38,742
- I agree too, Miss, but as you said -
835
01:06:38,932 --> 01:06:41,578
<i>- (Bustle)</i>
836
01:06:41,578 --> 01:06:44,670
- What do you want Juan?
837
01:06:44,670 --> 01:06:47,367
- May I go out for a minute, please?
- No. Only ten minutes to go, sit down, let's continue. Please.
838
01:06:47,467 --> 01:06:50,624
- See how we are all different? He doesn't care,
he's an amoeba.
839
01:06:50,824 --> 01:06:52,553
<i>- (Laughter)</i>
840
01:06:55,980 --> 01:07:01,484
"¡Feel your soul, listen to your heart!"
841
01:07:03,871 --> 01:07:07,173
Why is it so necessary to separate children by age?
842
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:11,239
Because there's an implication behind this, which is that
843
01:07:11,339 --> 01:07:15,595
children of the same age have the same affinities,
844
01:07:15,695 --> 01:07:19,290
the same capabilities, they have... they're all the same.
845
01:07:19,953 --> 01:07:25,888
Of course, if you place a small child in an environment which makes
him believe that he is the same as all the others,
846
01:07:25,988 --> 01:07:28,949
and all your efforts go towards making him believe this,
847
01:07:29,049 --> 01:07:33,249
the child will feel the same and will tend to behave the same,
he will homogenize.
848
01:07:38,193 --> 01:07:41,708
"This child talks too much, he should be quieter;
this child talks too little,
849
01:07:41,808 --> 01:07:45,956
he should be more talkative; this child plays too little,
he should play more;
850
01:07:46,056 --> 01:07:52,072
this child is too active, he should be quieter." Whatever
he does, it always seems to be wrong,
851
01:07:52,172 --> 01:07:57,770
it seems that he must end up being a standard child
who does everything by halves.
852
01:08:02,170 --> 01:08:08,820
We are all the same, as individuals, because
biologically we are a species,
853
01:08:10,020 --> 01:08:14,440
but socially and culturally we are different,
854
01:08:15,430 --> 01:08:17,242
and this has been misunderstood by education.
855
01:08:21,814 --> 01:08:26,306
They learn at different speeds, they have
varying interests and incentives,
856
01:08:26,532 --> 01:08:28,831
they relate to others in different ways.
857
01:08:29,679 --> 01:08:36,926
Quite a few years ago, Gardner stated that
a person doesn't only have linguistic,
858
01:08:37,138 --> 01:08:42,939
verbal or logical-mathematical intelligence, but that he also
has a variety of intelligences,
859
01:08:43,096 --> 01:08:45,792
including everything related to emotions.
860
01:08:46,474 --> 01:08:51,933
Diversity, in a way, specifically indicates to us
that we are all unique.
861
01:08:52,203 --> 01:08:56,480
We are unique as individuals and we are unique
as a culture and a society.
862
01:09:00,111 --> 01:09:04,885
To appreciate this fact oneself, and to help children
understand that differences
863
01:09:04,985 --> 01:09:10,552
between people are precisely what makes life
more interesting.
864
01:09:11,743 --> 01:09:16,024
<i>How can we get to value this diversity, if we
don't even understand it as adults?</i>
865
01:09:17,439 --> 01:09:21,565
<i>That having equal rights doesn't necessarily
imply that we all have to do the same thing?</i>
866
01:09:23,085 --> 01:09:27,514
<i>Nowadays many children with interests and behaviours
different to what is expected</i>
867
01:09:27,614 --> 01:09:29,883
<i>are diagnosed with psychiatric conditions.</i>
868
01:09:31,822 --> 01:09:36,304
<i>How can we be sure that we aren't mistaking
children's diversity for disease?</i>
869
01:09:36,404 --> 01:09:40,122
It's an authentic epidemic, a fad,
870
01:09:40,229 --> 01:09:45,008
in some areas about 10% of school children
871
01:09:45,108 --> 01:09:50,296
are consuming psychotropics for their
alleged hiperactivity.
872
01:09:52,332 --> 01:09:58,149
Hiperactivity hasn't been neurologically proven to exist,
it hasn't even been proven as a disease.
873
01:09:58,249 --> 01:10:05,327
Simply because you fit certain diagnostic criteria,
someone else decides you are hiperactive,
874
01:10:05,427 --> 01:10:08,309
that you are gifted,
875
01:10:08,309 --> 01:10:13,757
or within the accepted limits of normalcy
so as to be considered intelligent.
876
01:10:13,857 --> 01:10:22,000
Either children are much more hiperactive now than before,
which I tend to doubt, because if so
877
01:10:22,100 --> 01:10:27,646
we would have to ask ourselves the cause
of the problem and what we have done
878
01:10:27,746 --> 01:10:30,096
for children to be like that. Or, on the other hand,
they are the same as before.
879
01:10:30,196 --> 01:10:32,553
So ... what have we done that we can't stand them?
880
01:10:32,929 --> 01:10:34,137
- Miss, can I go and get a chalk?
881
01:10:34,237 --> 01:10:35,132
- I've said No.
882
01:10:35,745 --> 01:10:37,397
- Miss, may I go to the bathroom?
883
01:10:37,497 --> 01:10:39,178
- Wait until breaktime. No.
884
01:10:39,780 --> 01:10:44,458
When a child is labeled hiperactive, his whole
environment becomes involved,
885
01:10:44,827 --> 01:10:49,294
trying to slow him down, trying to calm him,
trying to reassure him,
886
01:10:49,394 --> 01:10:51,618
but all this will simply make the child more tense.
887
01:10:53,125 --> 01:10:59,373
Therefore, you must understand that when we become
labeled, in actual fact we are typecasted,
888
01:10:59,473 --> 01:11:05,819
and our wings are clipped, so that we cannot
reach our maximum potential.
889
01:11:07,073 --> 01:11:12,267
<i>Traditionally the IQ test is used for measuring
intelligence in a linear manner.</i>
890
01:11:13,918 --> 01:11:17,418
<i>Likewise, exams measure performance
under certain conditions.</i>
891
01:11:18,127 --> 01:11:21,786
<i>But these methods of evaluation do not contemplate
dozens of variables that affect</i>
892
01:11:21,886 --> 01:11:25,205
<i>development to higher or lower degrees
and are vital for education.</i>
893
01:11:26,316 --> 01:11:32,180
<i>The human being is a whole, and requires a global vision,
a comprehensive, holistic education.</i>
894
01:11:33,251 --> 01:11:39,219
Holistic comprehension proposes that it's possible
to develop a type of unifying intelligence,
895
01:11:39,913 --> 01:11:43,166
because holism is simply the vision of the whole.
896
01:11:43,500 --> 01:11:49,823
To us, maintaining a balance between what we call
head, heart and hands,
897
01:11:50,202 --> 01:11:55,967
means being able to develop a balanced
human being, so to speak.
898
01:11:58,962 --> 01:12:02,906
And in the end we keep repeating the same thing
in education, fragmenting spaces.
899
01:12:03,006 --> 01:12:07,558
Here we teach science, here we teach social skills,
so then this is not a comprehensive education.
900
01:12:08,128 --> 01:12:11,691
<i>Let's imagine that María's parents want her to have
a comprehensive education,</i>
901
01:12:12,365 --> 01:12:14,986
<i>so they send her to a trilingual
comprehensive school,</i>
902
01:12:15,123 --> 01:12:18,730
<i>where she has all kinds of sports,
over ten academic subjects,</i>
903
01:12:19,260 --> 01:12:20,901
<i>computer room, lab.</i>
904
01:12:21,827 --> 01:12:23,634
<i>They carry out monthly academic excursions.</i>
905
01:12:24,869 --> 01:12:30,335
<i>Chess workshops, drama, art, music, dancing,
skating, a farm, karate, yoga and meditation.</i>
906
01:12:32,817 --> 01:12:34,341
<i>Inside as much as outisde the school,</i>
907
01:12:34,524 --> 01:12:37,913
<i>comprehensive education is not relevant to the
amount of resources or subjects,</i>
908
01:12:38,385 --> 01:12:39,923
<i>but to a global approach.</i>
909
01:12:40,519 --> 01:12:43,600
Because it functions with integrated areas,
910
01:12:44,113 --> 01:12:49,803
not segmented ones as in traditional education where they only
think in Spanish, or they only think of Maths.
911
01:12:49,903 --> 01:12:57,740
But rather ... Maths are History, and they are Language,
and Geography at the same time.
912
01:13:09,726 --> 01:13:15,010
It's a cosmic education, as Montessori explains,
in which everything relates to everything.
913
01:13:15,254 --> 01:13:18,918
So then, if everything is inter-related, I can be doing
something and learning from it,
914
01:13:19,018 --> 01:13:21,627
and learning from that, and I'm learning all the time.
915
01:13:37,623 --> 01:13:44,355
So then what we had to do, was to allow the children
to become involved in different experiences.
916
01:13:44,875 --> 01:13:53,026
The School should be an experimentation bench,
a bench open to a host of possibilities,
917
01:13:53,860 --> 01:13:58,878
scientific, artistic, humanistic, all kinds of experiences,
918
01:13:59,541 --> 01:14:02,123
and see if this awakened something in them.
919
01:14:04,168 --> 01:14:09,538
With this method there's no special path, no single road
to follow, just as no two children are identical.
920
01:14:11,980 --> 01:14:17,385
If we want children to be creative we have to,
on the one hand, allow them to create,
921
01:14:17,485 --> 01:14:23,719
allow them to carry out activities in which they
can act spontaneously.
922
01:14:33,133 --> 01:14:37,277
<i>Art plays a fundamental role in this search for
creativity and expression,</i>
923
01:14:38,337 --> 01:14:41,958
<i>because it is the manner in which we manifest
our creativity and personality.</i>
924
01:14:42,380 --> 01:14:47,587
<i>It is essential that our concept of art be as open
and unstructured as possible.</i>
925
01:14:48,179 --> 01:14:53,162
Thus the arts lie within the building logic of
communities of purpose,
926
01:14:54,323 --> 01:15:00,603
not in terms of what we now call the cultural industries,
which derive from the fine arts.
927
01:15:02,747 --> 01:15:05,933
So there we are, in the middle of popular culture.
928
01:15:07,355 --> 01:15:11,669
<i>We create with paint and music, but also with dance,
theatre, design, construction,</i>
929
01:15:11,769 --> 01:15:15,001
<i>story-telling, sculpture, literature, humor, games,</i>
930
01:15:15,101 --> 01:15:18,680
<i>everything that emerges spontaneously
from a child is creation.</i>
931
01:15:19,444 --> 01:15:22,949
Everyone manifests their inner self through art.
932
01:15:23,862 --> 01:15:29,188
Art is not employed as a tool nor as a learning instrument.
Art itself is
933
01:15:30,676 --> 01:15:35,955
valid enough to be used as a learning tool.
934
01:15:36,179 --> 01:15:42,936
In this manner, art is a right. If you can't access art,
you can't access an integral education.
935
01:15:47,373 --> 01:15:51,748
I think that emotions form the foundation for making
life tick, emotions drive us,
936
01:15:52,090 --> 01:15:53,851
before making a decision, I feel.
937
01:15:54,449 --> 01:15:57,594
We don't need to design a specific school for
"emotional education",
938
01:15:57,694 --> 01:16:01,060
yet we have to bear in mind that an individual is
an emotional being
939
01:16:01,160 --> 01:16:06,504
and that our emotions are complex. When we deal with
relationships, learning contexts,
940
01:16:06,604 --> 01:16:11,399
we already know the emotion that will be generated,
we are going to develop that emotion.
941
01:16:15,511 --> 01:16:19,383
No human being can live in apathy or neglected,
942
01:16:19,570 --> 01:16:23,352
we need love, affection, acceptance
by other human beings.
943
01:16:23,452 --> 01:16:27,956
An emotionally stable, healthy and balanced adult
can only exist when,
944
01:16:28,056 --> 01:16:33,684
as a child, he has been tended to with much love
and treated with lots of patience and affection;
945
01:16:33,784 --> 01:16:37,035
and that he feels he was given love and patience.
946
01:16:37,840 --> 01:16:44,429
One of the main factors here is attention.
Listening, paying attention.
947
01:16:44,529 --> 01:16:49,416
But rather than a verbal form of attention,
a physical one, that supports, sustains.
948
01:16:52,291 --> 01:16:55,870
Not only where they feel loved, accepted,
949
01:16:56,971 --> 01:17:01,745
but where they learn to express their feelings.
950
01:17:03,475 --> 01:17:09,279
When they know their feelings are respected,
they have no problem expressing them.
951
01:17:10,081 --> 01:17:15,292
I talk a lot about this with my students.
Maybe you don't have a job,
952
01:17:15,392 --> 01:17:20,520
maybe your environment isn't top notch,
but if you know
953
01:17:20,620 --> 01:17:23,720
how to handle your emotions, surely you'll
feel more comfortable, right?
954
01:17:24,418 --> 01:17:26,827
As human beings, as beings,
955
01:17:28,255 --> 01:17:32,137
it's essential that as children they should be able to
connect with their inner selves,
956
01:17:32,237 --> 01:17:36,288
with what they feel, that they should recognize
what it is that they feel.
957
01:17:36,683 --> 01:17:43,123
To know the virtues they possess. They have to know
what they will be able to offer to mankind.
958
01:17:43,769 --> 01:17:47,737
They should be able to develop self-knowledge,
instead of
959
01:17:47,837 --> 01:17:51,893
looking outward all the time, as if the outside
960
01:17:52,567 --> 01:17:58,094
could provide the solution to all our problems.
It's learning to look inside oneself.
961
01:18:00,865 --> 01:18:04,839
Learning to recognize every tool we have
available, so as to ...
962
01:18:05,915 --> 01:18:08,088
basically to determine one's own destiny.
963
01:18:08,760 --> 01:18:13,586
So that everyone can learn to be the architect of
their own destiny, chosen by oneself.
964
01:18:26,000 --> 01:18:30,090
- Martin, Martin. We don't want you to leave
school like this.
965
01:18:30,090 --> 01:18:34,813
- I don't want to leave school "like this" either,
but we are going to read the speech anyway.
966
01:18:34,813 --> 01:18:38,444
- My dear, shortly you'll be out there,
you will have to choose a career
967
01:18:38,444 --> 01:18:40,870
take decisions, be responsible.
968
01:18:40,870 --> 01:18:43,548
You can't go on fooling around like a child!
969
01:18:43,548 --> 01:18:45,627
- Ok, Ok... Fine. Perfect.
970
01:18:47,376 --> 01:18:50,249
- And when did you people teach me how to choose?
971
01:18:56,131 --> 01:19:03,343
" ...Education without freedom results
in a life of unfulfillment."
972
01:19:04,243 --> 01:19:07,863
Life is full of options, and we must learn
to make choices.
973
01:19:08,321 --> 01:19:14,308
That's why the organization of all the educational material
enables children to learn how to choose.
974
01:19:14,817 --> 01:19:19,695
An environment that respects their needs, that allows them to
move about, that contains a series of materials,
975
01:19:19,795 --> 01:19:26,894
that allows them to discover, to touch, to follow their own
impulses, without anyone attempting to teach them.
976
01:19:27,133 --> 01:19:30,788
Where students can choose the subjects
they don't want to take,
977
01:19:31,325 --> 01:19:38,291
the ones they do want to take, a space in which they can
proffer their own self-generated activities.
978
01:19:38,636 --> 01:19:43,965
An open school, a school where students wouldn't
have to answer to anyone,
979
01:19:44,065 --> 01:19:45,944
where each and everyone can be their own self.
980
01:19:46,283 --> 01:19:48,720
Therefore, he who wishes can enter here, or here.
981
01:19:48,820 --> 01:19:52,872
Thus, children of different ages would have access to
everything according to their own interests.
982
01:19:53,282 --> 01:19:56,350
Freedom to learn what they want to learn,
983
01:19:56,450 --> 01:20:00,409
to learn at their own pace, and to not learn
what they don't want to learn.
984
01:20:56,163 --> 01:21:02,699
Selecting what they do helps them realize
what else they need to choose.
985
01:21:02,799 --> 01:21:06,963
In a way the projects themselves allow them,
to try out many options,
986
01:21:08,196 --> 01:21:13,702
and finally, at the end of their own process,
they have a clearer idea of themselves.
987
01:21:13,942 --> 01:21:17,962
The child gradually finds the path for his future life,
certain that whatever he becomes,
988
01:21:17,960 --> 01:21:21,688
whether a shoe salesman or a physician, he will do well
989
01:21:22,404 --> 01:21:26,338
if he does it with as much love, skill and commitment
as possible. Do you understand?
990
01:21:27,529 --> 01:21:32,166
One cannot learn about freedom theoretically,
and then, upon leaving school,
991
01:21:32,266 --> 01:21:36,411
become free. Children must be free at school.
992
01:21:37,500 --> 01:21:42,064
If we can't decide what we want to experience,
what we want to do in life,
993
01:21:42,633 --> 01:21:44,100
we are very limited when it comes to learning.
994
01:21:44,703 --> 01:21:48,537
Only when you have autonomy, and you feel
your autonomy is respected,
995
01:21:48,637 --> 01:21:50,051
will you know what you want.
996
01:21:51,336 --> 01:21:55,094
Basically children who fail to achieve
these levels of independence,
997
01:21:55,194 --> 01:21:57,742
who become dependent on other persons,
998
01:21:58,621 --> 01:22:02,146
will never do what they want, but what
other people want them to do.
999
01:22:05,523 --> 01:22:11,053
First you need to know how to resolve
situations on your own.
1000
01:22:12,679 --> 01:22:17,548
And during this process, responsibility appears.
1001
01:22:18,148 --> 01:22:22,414
I choose, I do , I obtain, and this becomes a cycle ...
1002
01:22:22,514 --> 01:22:25,849
"decision making, will power, freedom management"
1003
01:22:26,059 --> 01:22:31,665
And after responsibility, you can then aim
towards true freedom.
1004
01:22:33,288 --> 01:22:38,099
<i>Perhaps the biggest challenge we are facing is our
tendency to manage the child's activity.</i>
1005
01:22:38,424 --> 01:22:43,479
<i>The only way we know how to educate is to tell others
what to do and how to do it</i>
1006
01:22:43,579 --> 01:22:47,219
<i>and we have few chances in which to
make decisions on our own.</i>
1007
01:22:51,501 --> 01:22:56,287
I often find myself in class asking them what they
feel like doing, and they have no idea.
1008
01:22:57,399 --> 01:23:01,367
They're very accustomed to directivity in class, "we're going
to do this,we're going to do that"
1009
01:23:01,467 --> 01:23:06,724
Because on the whole, the teacher is uccustomed to
being the one who directs everything.
1010
01:23:06,985 --> 01:23:11,186
On the other hand in this manner we make
the child participate actively.
1011
01:23:11,330 --> 01:23:17,348
A teacher who no longer gives a lesson, but that moves
from group to group guiding, helping.
1012
01:23:17,835 --> 01:23:22,478
Who listens to them, and provides space for them to grow.
1013
01:23:22,879 --> 01:23:27,909
The teacher makes suggestions, he does not impose,
he proposes.
1014
01:23:28,533 --> 01:23:33,325
It 's not that you have authority and he doesn't,
it's about planting a seed in the student,
1015
01:23:33,425 --> 01:23:35,971
the belief that he has to be master of his own life.
1016
01:23:38,540 --> 01:23:40,038
Enough!
1017
01:23:46,553 --> 01:23:47,792
- Romero, you got a 3 !
1018
01:23:49,141 --> 01:23:54,181
We believe that marking, is completely
subjective and fallible,
1019
01:23:55,487 --> 01:24:00,039
firstly, because no two teachers evaluate in
exactly the same manner.
1020
01:24:00,241 --> 01:24:05,428
It should be the child himself who evaluates
how he feels about each task
1021
01:24:06,130 --> 01:24:10,552
if he is satisfied, or if he thinks
he could have done better.
1022
01:24:11,332 --> 01:24:16,191
The child also controls his learning process,
he monitors his own progress,
1023
01:24:16,291 --> 01:24:21,818
he knows where he is at, in what unit, in what
handbook, in which part of the process.
1024
01:24:22,050 --> 01:24:27,918
He knows his own journey, he knows. And it is he himself
who tallies his progress on that journey.
1025
01:24:29,918 --> 01:24:33,570
They decide, they choose when to pass,
they decide when they are ready.
1026
01:24:33,872 --> 01:24:38,233
There is no leaving exam here, instead they themselves
see if they've covered
1027
01:24:38,333 --> 01:24:43,457
everything according to the pedagogical dossier
so that they can then say " I'm leaving".
1028
01:24:43,828 --> 01:24:48,613
<i>Some experiencies speak of shared pedagogical reports
that are process centered,</i>
1029
01:24:49,283 --> 01:24:55,180
<i>others work from self-assessment and constant interchange
between educators, students and family.</i>
1030
01:24:55,519 --> 01:24:59,383
<i>This perspective completely changes our way of
understanding evaluation.</i>
1031
01:25:00,249 --> 01:25:03,869
<i>If we are really interested in learning by respecting
our own timing and motivation,</i>
1032
01:25:04,069 --> 01:25:08,025
<i>it's imperative we question the need
for exams and grades.</i>
1033
01:25:09,666 --> 01:25:12,632
There are no ratings to see who is better or worse,
1034
01:25:13,154 --> 01:25:16,050
there is simply a follow up on the child's development.
1035
01:25:16,465 --> 01:25:23,705
You observe the child's emotional issues, maturity,
socialization, his level of independence...
1036
01:25:24,248 --> 01:25:29,342
And that is what emerges when we discuss
the children in our group meetings.
1037
01:25:29,835 --> 01:25:34,992
In what the team shares with the families during
individual meetings with the families,
1038
01:25:35,290 --> 01:25:40,547
but there's no evaluation concerning their learning process,
their behavior, or their conduct,
1039
01:25:40,610 --> 01:25:44,653
there isn't really an assessment in that respect.
We simply accompany them.
1040
01:25:45,767 --> 01:25:48,272
<i>School becomes an open space,</i>
1041
01:25:48,977 --> 01:25:53,523
<i>a school with it's doors open to experiences,
practices, to the community.</i>
1042
01:25:53,959 --> 01:25:58,345
<i>Conflicts and situations in their community
are a part of the school,</i>
1043
01:25:58,495 --> 01:26:02,630
<i>and it thus becomes an educative centre,
where we can all learn from each other.</i>
1044
01:26:03,333 --> 01:26:10,107
<i>In this manner there are no age barriers or differences
to separate us, only experiences that strengthen us.</i>
1045
01:26:10,362 --> 01:26:16,657
Schools shouldn't even have walls,
my dream is a whole city.
1046
01:26:16,757 --> 01:26:23,818
I mean a city for children, where the whole city
becomes a playful learning environment.
1047
01:26:24,126 --> 01:26:36,711
Well, to begin with, when you enter you are aware of
a fluent ambience, yes, sort of fluid and very calm.
1048
01:26:37,253 --> 01:26:43,806
Some ... are making things, others looking through a telescope,
others are reading a book, and back there
1049
01:26:44,193 --> 01:26:48,425
others are carrying out an experiment. Groups, little groups,
1050
01:26:48,638 --> 01:26:52,265
working, but with a very clear goal, and knowing
where they are going.
1051
01:26:54,159 --> 01:26:56,321
<i>Rural schools, or comprehensive schools</i>
1052
01:26:56,421 --> 01:27:00,064
<i>are usually obliged to work with children
of different ages all together.</i>
1053
01:27:00,993 --> 01:27:03,357
<i>Most people think that this is a disadvantage,</i>
1054
01:27:04,169 --> 01:27:08,902
<i>but on the contrary, learning is enhanced by experiences,
relationships and human values,</i>
1055
01:27:09,458 --> 01:27:11,859
<i>for the children as well as for the teachers.</i>
1056
01:27:12,623 --> 01:27:15,471
<i>Usually these remote and marginal schools</i>
1057
01:27:15,661 --> 01:27:20,073
<i>possess an integrated education that's hard
to find in urban schools</i>
1058
01:27:20,278 --> 01:27:22,641
<i>which insist on separating children by age.</i>
1059
01:27:23,437 --> 01:27:28,599
And this temporality at school has also
made us separate the students
1060
01:27:29,542 --> 01:27:35,837
into generations. So here we have the 6 year olds,
the 7s, the 18s, etc. Right?
1061
01:27:36,051 --> 01:27:41,486
Throughout the history of humankind man has always lived
in intergenerational relationships,
1062
01:27:42,592 --> 01:27:47,630
where the little ones shared things with the grandfather,
the grandfaher with the father, a total mixture.
1063
01:27:47,931 --> 01:27:50,153
That's how the child learned, and he learned very well...
1064
01:27:51,174 --> 01:27:55,519
They were not separated into age-groups.
They were all together.
1065
01:27:56,284 --> 01:28:01,260
So they all climbed the hill together, worked together
carried out different projects together.
1066
01:28:01,503 --> 01:28:05,818
Children of all ages, all together in the same
unitary school, so to speak.
1067
01:28:06,523 --> 01:28:15,103
Mixed ages also bring about the possibility
for ethics to develop,
1068
01:28:15,724 --> 01:28:20,361
simply through everyday experiences.
It's a living thing.
1069
01:28:22,079 --> 01:28:25,650
<i>There are schools with integrated classrooms
grouping children every 3 years,</i>
1070
01:28:25,959 --> 01:28:29,102
<i>others have children with as much as 6 years' difference,</i>
1071
01:28:29,295 --> 01:28:34,229
<i>and in some we even see adolescents sharing
with little ones who have just begun.</i>
1072
01:28:35,287 --> 01:28:38,036
<i>There are also many schools that
preserve the graduate model, </i>
1073
01:28:38,231 --> 01:28:42,301
<i>but where the children can change groups
according to their needs and processes.</i>
1074
01:28:43,105 --> 01:28:51,621
Generally they are all the same age, but since, because of their
maturity, there are children who work on other topics
1075
01:28:52,374 --> 01:28:58,311
at times they might be interacting with other younger
groups, and
1076
01:28:58,827 --> 01:29:01,012
at others with older groups.
1077
01:29:01,668 --> 01:29:06,745
The child who cannot advance in a particular subject
can do so in another one, with no interruptions,
1078
01:29:06,845 --> 01:29:10,450
it's like a stream of water, that finds a rock
but doesn't stop to wait,
1079
01:29:10,962 --> 01:29:15,005
it searches for a way to flow by, and if it can't,
it rises and flows over it.
1080
01:29:16,135 --> 01:29:22,764
And this allows the child who is strong in one area,
to be able to show all the rest,
1081
01:29:23,014 --> 01:29:26,483
and to help them with that subject.
1082
01:29:27,059 --> 01:29:31,783
In the meantime he can benefit from those
who are strong in other topics.
1083
01:29:35,305 --> 01:29:39,259
Anyone can be the next stimulus, but at
the correct moment in time.
1084
01:29:39,259 --> 01:29:43,820
Therefore there are many children of different ages
who could become the
1085
01:29:43,820 --> 01:29:45,220
next stimulus for another child's learning process,
1086
01:29:45,220 --> 01:29:49,092
and not necessarily a group or some specific person.
1087
01:29:49,345 --> 01:29:53,954
This connexion between them is so beautiful because
the older ones take care of the little ones;
1088
01:29:55,167 --> 01:30:00,816
when they go out to play they help them to get changed,
to put on their shoes or jacket.
1089
01:30:01,497 --> 01:30:06,498
This is simply about learning to live together,
learning to ...
1090
01:30:08,198 --> 01:30:09,752
yes, to work as a team.
1091
01:30:10,655 --> 01:30:15,851
What is the objective of education? To learn?
To learn what? Knowledge?
1092
01:30:16,560 --> 01:30:23,112
Or rather to develop human abilities that can only
develop through relating to others,
1093
01:30:23,697 --> 01:30:28,378
from the perspective of time and the process itself,
from doing, from communicating,
1094
01:30:29,333 --> 01:30:31,408
from looking within and knowing oneself,
1095
01:30:32,342 --> 01:30:33,557
from Love.
1096
01:30:41,722 --> 01:30:44,126
<i>(Voices engaging in conversation)</i>
1097
01:30:51,774 --> 01:30:54,833
<i>(Voices engaging in conversation)</i>
1098
01:31:03,137 --> 01:31:06,196
- What are you doing?
- Nothing Sebastian, go away.
1099
01:31:06,196 --> 01:31:09,255
- Nothing? You're writing something.
- Stay out of this.
1100
01:31:09,255 --> 01:31:14,937
- Well, I want to know.
1101
01:31:14,937 --> 01:31:17,584
<i>(Yelling)</i>
1102
01:31:21,711 --> 01:31:25,485
- What's going on here?
1103
01:31:25,585 --> 01:31:29,376
- Nothing.
- What do you mean nothing?
1104
01:31:29,376 --> 01:31:31,476
- Cristina, please take them away.
- Sebastian!!
1105
01:31:31,476 --> 01:31:33,306
- You stay here, and you too.
1106
01:31:36,936 --> 01:31:38,529
What do you think school is?
1107
01:31:38,994 --> 01:31:44,039
- Can I say something?
- Not now Micaela. This is total chaos.
1108
01:31:45,897 --> 01:31:49,922
- What are you laughing at?
- I'm laughing at these posters.
1109
01:31:53,053 --> 01:31:55,406
- What is this?
1110
01:31:55,406 --> 01:31:59,563
- These are some posters that we want to post on the walls,
since we can't read the speech.
1111
01:31:59,663 --> 01:32:02,575
- Never. Not like this!
1112
01:32:03,879 --> 01:32:08,641
Do you think you can do whatever you want? That you
can hang anything up?
1113
01:32:09,227 --> 01:32:12,859
No, boys and girls. There are rules at school.
1114
01:32:13,372 --> 01:32:16,941
The world is chaotic, our lives are chaotic.
1115
01:32:17,161 --> 01:32:21,993
That is why we have to give you some peace
and quiet, some serenity.
1116
01:32:22,960 --> 01:32:27,068
School just wants to provide you with some order,
do you understand?
1117
01:32:27,735 --> 01:32:28,958
Order!
1118
01:32:34,695 --> 01:32:42,781
"All living experience occurrs through conversations
and this is where the reality we live in originates"
1119
01:32:45,000 --> 01:32:53,557
There is always a fear that freedom and the lack of a
sense of authority, rather than authortiy itself,
1120
01:32:54,218 --> 01:32:59,703
will generate indiscipline or disorder.
1121
01:33:00,369 --> 01:33:04,735
What really happens is that discipline ...
schools have turned discipline into
1122
01:33:06,426 --> 01:33:08,809
"to behave the way I want them to behave",
1123
01:33:09,879 --> 01:33:13,659
but in fact discipline is the learning of behaviour.
1124
01:33:14,801 --> 01:33:23,374
It means that a disciplined person, is a person who learns,
who has learned to manage his behaviour,
1125
01:33:24,384 --> 01:33:29,253
but not externally; instead, he learns to manage his behaviour.
1126
01:33:29,654 --> 01:33:32,070
<i>We can distinguish 3 types of discipline.</i>
1127
01:33:32,597 --> 01:33:37,811
<i>One, the authoritarian discipline, which normally consists of
rules established by a controlling authority.</i>
1128
01:33:38,562 --> 01:33:42,801
<i>A functional discipline, in which rules
derive from actual experiences,</i>
1129
01:33:42,901 --> 01:33:45,712
<i>and are modified and set up by the group itself.</i>
1130
01:33:46,365 --> 01:33:52,184
<i>This kind of discipline is naturally established by the community
as it is the result of every member's decision.</i>
1131
01:33:53,957 --> 01:33:56,427
<i>And finally we have auto-discipline,</i>
1132
01:33:56,955 --> 01:34:00,673
<i>where each and every one consciously constructs
their own behaviour.</i>
1133
01:34:00,812 --> 01:34:06,650
They gradually learn about respect, in a vivid and easy manner.
1134
01:34:07,197 --> 01:34:12,155
If they are all seated, just doing what an adult
is telling them to do
1135
01:34:12,650 --> 01:34:18,196
there can be no learning about limits nor of respect
for others, there is simply obedience.
1136
01:34:18,983 --> 01:34:24,631
Basically, if you teach the children that respect for
others is a limit,
1137
01:34:24,731 --> 01:34:26,707
allowing for work, enabling work,
1138
01:34:27,355 --> 01:34:34,834
they understand perfectly well that behaviour which impedes
work must mean : "This, you cannot do"
1139
01:34:35,649 --> 01:34:37,707
In other words, coexistence needs no explanations.
1140
01:34:38,726 --> 01:34:43,371
You cannot work if the group next to you is making
too much noise and viceversa.
1141
01:34:43,873 --> 01:34:50,103
And the thing is that the child begins to take responsability
for the consequences he himself produces.
1142
01:34:50,681 --> 01:34:54,709
He who can restrain himself, who can think, who can ponder,
1143
01:34:54,872 --> 01:35:02,529
doesn't really need an exterior limit to get what he wants.
1144
01:35:03,250 --> 01:35:08,810
<i>We can't expect a young person to make conscientious decisions
concerning his life, his environment or his country</i>
1145
01:35:09,355 --> 01:35:12,138
<i>if we always decide how he should dress in school,</i>
1146
01:35:12,336 --> 01:35:14,876
<i>what he should learn, or what he should do with his life ...</i>
1147
01:35:15,424 --> 01:35:19,174
<i>These young people will have to make choices in a society</i>
1148
01:35:19,174 --> 01:35:22,274
<i>where the rules keep changing according to
the rise of new needs,</i>
1149
01:35:22,274 --> 01:35:25,012
<i>opinions and ways of understanding reality.</i>
1150
01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:28,081
<i>The same thing could occurr at school</i>
1151
01:35:28,565 --> 01:35:34,296
<i>where the rules could be applied to the learning, to the
needs and to the opinions of the children.</i>
1152
01:35:34,744 --> 01:35:39,345
<i>To achieve this, it is essential we re-think the
power structures in schools.</i>
1153
01:35:40,250 --> 01:35:46,636
There should be no power structure at all,
there should be an active authority,
1154
01:35:47,145 --> 01:35:52,033
administrative, functional, organizational, yes,
but not a power structure.
1155
01:35:52,641 --> 01:35:57,270
When you dare to question that inherent authority
1156
01:35:59,362 --> 01:36:05,893
you can become a better conductor of the whole process.
1157
01:36:06,052 --> 01:36:07,915
Occasionally we ask their opinion
1158
01:36:08,836 --> 01:36:13,073
but, to be honest, are we really going to take
that opinion into consideration?
1159
01:36:13,723 --> 01:36:18,729
I'd say "doing it together". We have an issue so we say
"Right, let's look at this together"
1160
01:36:19,284 --> 01:36:26,405
- What do you think?", "No. Let's look at it together, let's not approach
it with my idea/your idea separately."
1161
01:36:26,774 --> 01:36:29,293
Everything in nature exists through cooperation.
1162
01:36:30,752 --> 01:36:34,116
Organisms that cooperate with others are the ones
who survive the most.
1163
01:36:34,586 --> 01:36:38,710
Those that think they can exist on their own
don't survive at all.
1164
01:36:40,970 --> 01:36:45,822
Therefore, what's very important is how we begin to
create better citizens at school.
1165
01:36:46,168 --> 01:36:52,235
The concept of participation should be learned in the classroom,
because afterwards is too late.
1166
01:36:52,518 --> 01:36:58,520
For it is they themselves who, through conversations or
dialogues which are generated by the group itself,
1167
01:36:58,739 --> 01:37:01,442
get to realise what is the absolute minimum needed
1168
01:37:01,645 --> 01:37:05,509
to be able to coexist in that community.
1169
01:37:05,837 --> 01:37:09,973
The coordinator would be the one to make sure
the curriculum is complied with
1170
01:37:10,125 --> 01:37:14,354
but all the small stuff inside that curriculum
is chosen by all of us.
1171
01:37:14,513 --> 01:37:18,197
Children must learn to work in groups, to listen to others,
1172
01:37:18,505 --> 01:37:22,550
to accept different ideas even when they disagree.
And not to be forceful,
1173
01:37:24,046 --> 01:37:28,573
to be able to resolve conflicts, to make
group decisions, to agree...
1174
01:37:28,820 --> 01:37:35,176
I think that when children feel secure and respected by others,
and are in a harmonious and balanced environment,
1175
01:37:36,288 --> 01:37:39,575
they generally don't try to go beyond limits.
1176
01:37:39,675 --> 01:37:43,671
especially when said limits have been originated
by themselves as a community.
1177
01:37:46,108 --> 01:37:50,985
For instance, if there is a problem, we hold assembly.
There they discuss the issue,
1178
01:37:51,876 --> 01:37:58,018
but the discussion is not whether the problem is against the rules,
what is right and what is wrong.
1179
01:37:58,306 --> 01:38:04,279
They discuss the action itself, sustainability, interrelationship.
1180
01:38:04,614 --> 01:38:08,242
There are also moments during the day in which
they hold meetings, assemblies,
1181
01:38:08,916 --> 01:38:13,778
whatever you choose to call them, in which they make
a series of decisions collectively. In which
1182
01:38:14,374 --> 01:38:18,396
the children who are mature enough, and wish to take part,
participate.
1183
01:38:18,953 --> 01:38:24,103
And in assembly the facilitators don't have a vote. The children
have a voice and vote, we only have a voice.
1184
01:38:24,523 --> 01:38:27,258
So we do participate in the assembly,
but it is they who decide.
1185
01:38:28,048 --> 01:38:32,477
<i>Some experiences form student governments
with very complex structures,</i>
1186
01:38:33,202 --> 01:38:35,615
<i>others hold weekly assemblies since primary school,</i>
1187
01:38:36,036 --> 01:38:40,142
<i>and even debating meetings to address
the needs and conflicts that arise.</i>
1188
01:38:40,825 --> 01:38:45,728
<i>In all of them, the children make decisions about their reality,
the rules, the way they dress,</i>
1189
01:38:45,949 --> 01:38:50,094
<i>the roles that they assign to each other, educational
proposals, curriculum projects,</i>
1190
01:38:50,501 --> 01:38:54,150
<i>and in some cases they even decide who will
make up the group of teachers ...</i>
1191
01:38:54,449 --> 01:39:01,315
This is to lose fear, to dare to balance the scales
a little more, and thus believe that
1192
01:39:01,535 --> 01:39:04,799
children and adolescents have a lot to say.
1193
01:39:05,581 --> 01:39:11,824
Everything takes place in a sort of chaos, and yet
that chaos is a constructive one,
1194
01:39:11,924 --> 01:39:16,167
where people maintain a good connection, shall we say,
amongst themselves.
1195
01:39:16,874 --> 01:39:21,752
We work in circles, sitting on cushions or
carpets on the floor,
1196
01:39:22,219 --> 01:39:28,710
copying the singing and dancing circles of ancient times,
which are spaces where everyone is equal,
1197
01:39:28,810 --> 01:39:32,537
equally distanced, and where we can all see each other.
1198
01:39:32,637 --> 01:39:36,566
Here the children discuss every learning objective,
1199
01:39:37,066 --> 01:39:39,836
debating them alone, in pairs or in groups.
1200
01:39:40,631 --> 01:39:42,926
They learn to help and take care of each other,
1201
01:39:44,337 --> 01:39:46,154
as a way of life.
1202
01:39:49,830 --> 01:39:57,239
When two children have a quarrel, it's: "Now let's see. This happened
to him. What part did you play here?"
1203
01:39:57,492 --> 01:40:01,158
It's like admiting that one also has a part
to play in a relationship.
1204
01:40:01,655 --> 01:40:06,129
Mediate so that they themselves can do the job
and that each one be
1205
01:40:06,522 --> 01:40:09,242
responsible for their own part in the conflict.
1206
01:40:09,342 --> 01:40:14,898
To understand that he believes himself to be right,
just as much as I do.
1207
01:40:16,298 --> 01:40:19,232
And then, well, how to understand each other.
1208
01:40:19,332 --> 01:40:24,670
He will be someone who will propitiate
conversations, interchange, and
1209
01:40:24,770 --> 01:40:31,122
warmth towards others, one who will build a bond that
will be useful to them both, for life.
1210
01:40:31,883 --> 01:40:35,648
<i>A great portion of these experiences, either in
or out of school,</i>
1211
01:40:35,773 --> 01:40:40,118
<i>are forced to take place outside the system, as they
are denied and excluded by it.</i>
1212
01:40:40,771 --> 01:40:45,148
<i>In some cases, the children can turn in
open exams to justify their learning,</i>
1213
01:40:45,347 --> 01:40:49,177
<i>but in others, they aren't allowed to obtain
any validation of their knowledge.</i>
1214
01:40:50,088 --> 01:40:53,547
<i>Is it really necessary that a mere paper
should state what we know?</i>
1215
01:40:54,061 --> 01:40:58,018
<i>Is a degree proof that we have completed
our education successfully?</i>
1216
01:40:58,706 --> 01:41:02,151
Does a complete or successful education exist?
1217
01:41:03,573 --> 01:41:08,613
It has nothing to do with learning that
two plus two equals four,
1218
01:41:09,159 --> 01:41:13,654
it has to do with being able to discover your true vocation
your mission in life.
1219
01:41:13,754 --> 01:41:20,019
Once you are sure of this, you can close your eyes, take a deep breath,
and you simply know which way to go.
1220
01:41:20,119 --> 01:41:25,265
Education never ends because the essence
of new education is self-education.
1221
01:41:25,365 --> 01:41:29,081
And the end-game is that the student
becomes his own teacher.
1222
01:41:29,181 --> 01:41:32,039
He learns from and for himself.
1223
01:41:32,139 --> 01:41:38,499
And he also learns from the outside world. Education becomes
a constant flow between outside and inside.
1224
01:41:38,787 --> 01:41:43,089
The pupil isn't simply someone who receives,
he also becomes a source.
1225
01:41:44,646 --> 01:41:48,303
Therefore, that idea that was drummed into us at school,
1226
01:41:48,403 --> 01:41:52,438
"study so that you obtain something, so that you
become someone in life",
1227
01:41:53,356 --> 01:41:58,233
"study so as to gain promotion",
1228
01:41:58,551 --> 01:42:04,833
"education is the only way to achieve social and
economic growth" isn't all that correct.
1229
01:42:05,704 --> 01:42:09,252
<i>A few decades ago, a stream of criticism against
schooling emerged.</i>
1230
01:42:09,643 --> 01:42:14,370
<i>Educators, teachers, sociologists demanded
education outside institutions,</i>
1231
01:42:14,575 --> 01:42:16,696
<i>within family and social environments.</i>
1232
01:42:16,944 --> 01:42:21,578
<i>These opinions gave rise to home schooling,
schooling whithout a school,</i>
1233
01:42:21,820 --> 01:42:25,311
<i>and over time, different forms of self-education
began to develop,</i>
1234
01:42:25,411 --> 01:42:28,936
<i> self-learning networks, and education
between peers.</i>
1235
01:42:29,368 --> 01:42:36,909
We try to teach them through everyday life, they travel with us,
they accompany us to various activities.
1236
01:42:37,009 --> 01:42:42,074
Activities in places normally known as "work places",
where boys and girls are often excluded.
1237
01:42:42,174 --> 01:42:47,231
Advantages that are pretty powerful in terms
of self-discovery,
1238
01:42:47,483 --> 01:42:51,612
and for the recovery of autonomy and self-confidence.
1239
01:42:52,954 --> 01:42:59,686
I see him more confident about what he wants, he explores
a lot more, he studies because he enjoys learning.
1240
01:42:59,918 --> 01:43:04,138
We believe that the kind of education
without a school that we offer,
1241
01:43:04,238 --> 01:43:09,182
could be called collaborative self-learning,
1242
01:43:09,282 --> 01:43:12,824
or self-directed learning, or free learning.
1243
01:43:13,140 --> 01:43:18,623
<i>Of course, there are as many forms of home schooling or
schooling without school as families that practice them.</i>
1244
01:43:19,465 --> 01:43:22,002
<i>From experiences carried out by educators and scholars,</i>
1245
01:43:22,102 --> 01:43:25,929
<i>even with religious families, and inhabitants
of marginal cultures.</i>
1246
01:43:26,850 --> 01:43:32,187
<i>These experiences enrich educational diversity and the
manner in which we understand learning,</i>
1247
01:43:32,805 --> 01:43:37,640
<i>but to achieve this, all forms of education
need to exist, they need to be free.
1248
01:43:39,532 --> 01:43:43,015
I believe you must not force it,
freedom can't be forced,
1249
01:43:43,201 --> 01:43:47,508
but spaces for it can be opened up so that they
are considered acceptable.
1250
01:43:48,268 --> 01:43:52,025
And if half a nation wants state education,
well, they can have it,
1251
01:43:52,125 --> 01:43:56,686
but if the other half wants, I don't know, 30 different
pedagogical methods, so be it.
1252
01:43:56,985 --> 01:44:03,710
A new educational paradigm should be scenarios
where each and every individual
1253
01:44:04,209 --> 01:44:10,967
could detect and experiment with the things
he/she likes, and then work on them.
1254
01:44:11,874 --> 01:44:16,774
Hence my proposal to "unschool" the school,
in other words:
1255
01:44:16,874 --> 01:44:20,535
remove from it everything that is scholarly.
This means that
1256
01:44:20,635 --> 01:44:25,418
we have to remove from the school everything that
prevents students from learning.
1257
01:44:26,720 --> 01:44:29,876
This need not necessarily be done only in schools,
1258
01:44:31,959 --> 01:44:42,479
it could take place in clubs, neighbourhood ones,
neighbourhood organizations, parks.
1259
01:44:42,579 --> 01:44:49,629
In other words, the amount of places where we could put
this into motion is endless.
1260
01:44:52,806 --> 01:44:55,713
- Please! They're teenagers! Give credit where it's due!
1261
01:44:55,827 --> 01:44:59,003
When I was eighteen, I also wanted to
change the world, but it can't be!
1262
01:44:59,159 --> 01:45:02,053
- No, no, no. I don't think it's like that.
1263
01:45:02,150 --> 01:45:04,893
I think that the childrens' criticism is correct.
1264
01:45:05,321 --> 01:45:10,620
They are crtiticising the educational system,
let's not take it personally, please.
1265
01:45:10,704 --> 01:45:12,645
- I have to make a decision.
1266
01:45:12,911 --> 01:45:16,264
Do we let them read the speech or not?
1267
01:45:16,386 --> 01:45:19,718
- Look, Alicia, I think that if you let them,
you'll lose all authority.
1268
01:45:19,815 --> 01:45:22,819
They can't do what they want, they can't!
- Over time children forget.
1269
01:45:22,819 --> 01:45:25,397
I'll speak to them later and explain
why they can't read it.
1270
01:45:25,397 --> 01:45:30,451
-No, that's not it. The point isn't whether
we let them read the text or not.
1271
01:45:30,551 --> 01:45:34,606
I believe that we have to consider if what they are saying
is important or not.
1272
01:45:34,749 --> 01:45:37,585
What they are saying is serious, it's not just anything.
1273
01:45:37,585 --> 01:45:40,184
- I totally agree with you.
1274
01:45:40,184 --> 01:45:44,474
Because we have all read this assignment, and what they
are asking for here
1275
01:45:44,474 --> 01:45:48,701
is a change in education, an evolution.
1276
01:45:48,801 --> 01:45:55,748
I think that if we change our daily attitudes
1277
01:45:55,906 --> 01:45:59,450
the children will take us more seriously.
1278
01:46:00,455 --> 01:46:04,419
And I believe this is an opportunity.
1279
01:46:05,762 --> 01:46:07,445
That dropped into our laps.
1280
01:46:08,862 --> 01:46:14,136
If we can't see it, maybe it's because we're
underestimating them a little.
1281
01:46:14,572 --> 01:46:16,503
The question would be:
1282
01:46:17,460 --> 01:46:21,125
Are we willing to take advantage of this opportunity?
1283
01:46:23,046 --> 01:46:27,045
Are we truly prepared to face such a change?
1284
01:46:32,051 --> 01:46:37,851
"Little by little they shed the false garb they had acquired
at Teacher Training College;
1285
01:46:37,951 --> 01:46:44,461
they softened their voice and their gaze, and they sat down
with the children to talk to them and to listen to them."
1286
01:46:44,561 --> 01:46:49,742
The great teacher won't be giving the master class anymore.
1287
01:46:49,742 --> 01:46:53,905
The teacher is simply accompanying a learning process
1288
01:46:54,590 --> 01:46:57,682
with a group of people who know no more or less than he does.
1289
01:46:57,932 --> 01:47:03,389
The eacher must understand that he is simply a guide,
that he is sowing seeds, he is leading,
1290
01:47:03,871 --> 01:47:10,670
he is offering opportunities and pretexts for the child to explore,
to work, to be motivated and interested.
1291
01:47:10,956 --> 01:47:15,651
Therefore, as I see it, the term education is confusing,
it stems from an arrogant point of view.
1292
01:47:16,085 --> 01:47:19,793
For example, education comes from </i><i>educere<i>,
educere means to extract.
1293
01:47:20,731 --> 01:47:25,435
If I'm a teacher, I want the child to bring forth something,
to draw out his best,
1294
01:47:25,582 --> 01:47:30,765
but that's arrogant also, because it's a bit violent
for you "to draw out your best",
1295
01:47:31,371 --> 01:47:34,080
that I should draw your best out of you through my education.
1296
01:47:39,083 --> 01:47:45,974
My proposal is to care for instead of educating. And there is only
one way to care for, you either take care of or you don't.
1297
01:47:46,368 --> 01:47:48,480
There are many ways to educate, but not to care for.
1298
01:47:50,973 --> 01:48:00,054
The ability to simply embrace the flow of life
- because this is life, nothing else -
1299
01:48:01,132 --> 01:48:05,607
instead of trying to educate all the time.
1300
01:48:06,787 --> 01:48:11,915
A good beginning might be to give up the hint of omnipotence
that teachers tend to possess
1301
01:48:12,387 --> 01:48:18,843
in believing that they are actually the bearers of something
important to teach to their students.
1302
01:48:19,561 --> 01:48:23,683
Yes, the teacher will have to undergo a humble change,
1303
01:48:25,315 --> 01:48:28,839
and become an observer
1304
01:48:30,809 --> 01:48:35,651
so as to be able to sense each child's process,
whilst taking care
1305
01:48:36,758 --> 01:48:39,709
to not become an obstacle in his way.
1306
01:48:41,214 --> 01:48:44,935
<i>The key isn't only in the materials, resources, methods,</i>
1307
01:48:45,130 --> 01:48:47,483
<i>contents, curricula and schedules,</i>
1308
01:48:48,271 --> 01:48:50,684
<i>but in the form, in the relationship.</i>
1309
01:48:51,791 --> 01:48:57,583
<i>In persons and their outlook on education, their way of
understanding life, childhood and learning.</i>
1310
01:48:59,184 --> 01:49:04,097
<i>We can qualify thousands of teachers, and invest
millions in materials and new methods,</i>
1311
01:49:04,584 --> 01:49:10,733
<i> but the secret is in the way every human being sees
others, what they do and what they are.</i>
1312
01:49:11,685 --> 01:49:16,276
To open up your heart, that which we all have,
and to speak clearly.
1313
01:49:16,417 --> 01:49:21,074
That's all that children need, and from then on
it's simply communication...
1314
01:49:22,491 --> 01:49:27,349
Everything that they recognize in you to be true,
they listen to.
1315
01:49:30,643 --> 01:49:36,765
A teacher that doesn't change his attitude, that doesn't believe in
what he is going to do, will find it hard to obtain good results.
1316
01:49:37,132 --> 01:49:46,287
The basic principle of all change is questioning
what we believe, and that scares us.
1317
01:49:48,056 --> 01:49:51,222
I mean, I can't change if I hang on to what I believe
1318
01:49:53,545 --> 01:49:57,736
and therefore, in a certain sense, or symbolically,
I have to die,
1319
01:49:57,736 --> 01:50:02,257
my outlook on life has to die in order to improve.
1320
01:50:02,357 --> 01:50:06,027
<i>Learning is a continuous transformation,</i>
1321
01:50:06,027 --> 01:50:09,127
<i>and we can hardly accompanyor collaborate
in others' learning,</i>
1322
01:50:09,127 --> 01:50:13,471
<i>if we don't learn ourselves, if we don't
undergo an internal change,</i>
1323
01:50:14,058 --> 01:50:16,940
<i>in our own history, in what determines us.</i>
1324
01:50:23,923 --> 01:50:27,290
And logosophical pedagogy is basedon this,
which is very simple,
1325
01:50:27,642 --> 01:50:31,038
You can't give what you don't have, ergo,
everything we want to teach
1326
01:50:31,138 --> 01:50:35,925
must be backed by one's own experience,
endorsed by one's own life.
1327
01:50:36,200 --> 01:50:40,688
Those who teach come from a repressive education.
1328
01:50:40,788 --> 01:50:45,792
Therefore, teachers don't know how to handle
their own emotions,
1329
01:50:46,182 --> 01:50:48,458
hence, they cannot teach about those emotions.
1330
01:50:49,298 --> 01:50:54,789
The key to this is in the fact that every generation
has a responsibility, a vital one, I think,
1331
01:50:55,143 --> 01:51:00,166
which is to lead an exemplary life, to lead
as integral a life as possible.
1332
01:51:05,074 --> 01:51:12,218
It's as if educators, when they study, become convinced
that education is like that,
1333
01:51:12,560 --> 01:51:17,206
thus they are less capable of questioning education,
1334
01:51:18,223 --> 01:51:22,770
but they aren't happy, they don't have fun
the don't enjoy their work.
1335
01:51:23,384 --> 01:51:30,149
It's really important to begin to pay attention
to what I feel when I'm educating.
1336
01:51:30,972 --> 01:51:36,941
Am I at peace, or do I feel conflicted?
1337
01:51:37,612 --> 01:51:42,643
The change that must occur in teachers, just as with parents, is to
make contact with their own true selves, their own potential,
1338
01:51:42,743 --> 01:51:47,324
to discover their true selves, beyond their beliefs
and the education they have received.
1339
01:51:47,424 --> 01:51:51,581
Therefore, it demands thorough, very thorough, inner searching.
1340
01:51:51,783 --> 01:51:54,939
But above all, it is a journey of self-knowledge.
1341
01:51:55,310 --> 01:51:59,831
To be a teacher a teacher must be in a constant
process of self-development.
1342
01:52:01,530 --> 01:52:03,307
A very profound job
1343
01:52:05,478 --> 01:52:10,294
concerning sensibility, consciousness, harmony,
1344
01:52:11,061 --> 01:52:16,472
and joy, must be carried out to dare to be called a teacher.
1345
01:52:17,804 --> 01:52:24,162
Because if the teacher fears tomorrow, if the teacher
keeps doubting his capabilities,
1346
01:52:25,883 --> 01:52:27,782
he can't guide the child.
1347
01:52:28,522 --> 01:52:35,462
If teaching brings you no joy, you're not educating.
1348
01:52:38,235 --> 01:52:43,714
The teacher must love everything he has
lived through in the past
1349
01:52:44,098 --> 01:52:47,263
so as to be able to turn and transform it.
1350
01:52:49,658 --> 01:52:53,937
When you have established a true connection with the children,
you leave the classrom feeling rejuvenated,
1351
01:52:54,037 --> 01:52:58,906
and rather than leaving school feeling tired,
you do so with heaps of energy.
1352
01:52:59,006 --> 01:53:02,641
There are many people that want to become a teacher
because they want to play,
1353
01:53:02,741 --> 01:53:04,971
because they want to cuddle,
1354
01:53:05,366 --> 01:53:09,054
that want to be a teacher because they want to
learn from the children.
1355
01:53:10,363 --> 01:53:14,570
I think that being a teacher is a privilege, because
1356
01:53:14,670 --> 01:53:18,912
it's like entering a forge every day,and you leave
transformed...
1357
01:53:20,115 --> 01:53:24,393
You have to be very, very blind to not take
this opportunity for growth,
1358
01:53:24,493 --> 01:53:29,012
because this is to be in touch with life itself, it's like
being in touch with nature in its purest state.
1359
01:53:30,047 --> 01:53:36,273
<i>How can a teacher transmit happiness and personal realization
if the system itself sees him as a number?</i>
1360
01:53:37,346 --> 01:53:40,268
<i>What the school does with children,
it also does to the teachers,</i>
1361
01:53:40,981 --> 01:53:46,268
<i>through its rewards and punishments,
ratings, limitations, bureaucracy.</i>
1362
01:53:48,397 --> 01:53:51,133
When we say that children should develop in freedom,
1363
01:53:52,192 --> 01:53:55,231
the teachers must also be free.
1364
01:53:56,064 --> 01:54:00,477
The teacher has a role that must be recuperated.
1365
01:54:01,193 --> 01:54:05,345
Not because the state gives it to him, but because
he takes it.
1366
01:54:07,228 --> 01:54:10,604
In fact, this means that, for example,
this school has no director.
1367
01:54:12,598 --> 01:54:16,060
There's a collegiate direction, we teachers must all agree.
1368
01:54:16,956 --> 01:54:22,276
Nobody is to blame. If a meeting has been rather
fruitless, it's everybody's responsibility,
1369
01:54:22,376 --> 01:54:27,889
because there's no boss, or director, nobody who determines.
1370
01:54:27,989 --> 01:54:31,348
In fact, we meet every day after work
1371
01:54:31,822 --> 01:54:37,248
and we spend one and a half to two hours, sharing
and discussing the day's topics.
1372
01:54:38,105 --> 01:54:43,555
I don't think this experience could hold if it weren't
supported by this work from below, right?
1373
01:54:43,655 --> 01:54:49,453
Not only meetings every morning, but wealso
meet every day at lunchtime
1374
01:54:49,553 --> 01:54:54,802
to talk about the children, to draw up a general review
of the day and of each of the groups,
1375
01:54:55,334 --> 01:54:59,135
or to deal with any particular subject or
situation that crops up.
1376
01:54:59,235 --> 01:55:03,132
The task of educating is so complex,
1377
01:55:04,841 --> 01:55:08,970
that no one person can do it alone,
this is team work.
1378
01:55:11,371 --> 01:55:16,654
<i>A truly democratic form of education trusts the
children to decide about their learning,</i>
1379
01:55:17,299 --> 01:55:20,869
<i>and in the parents's freedom to choose and participate
in their children's education</i>
1380
01:55:21,459 --> 01:55:27,406
<i>and in the teacher's choice as to what path they wish to
take in every classroom, in every school.</i>
1381
01:55:27,406 --> 01:55:31,463
<i>Only then can we be sure that education
responds directly</i>
1382
01:55:31,463 --> 01:55:35,182
<i>to the needs of every person, family and community.</i>
1383
01:55:35,282 --> 01:55:39,809
<i>So there is no magic recipe, no one method
for everybody,</i>
1384
01:55:40,017 --> 01:55:43,838
<i>but as many proposals as there are free
and autonomous experiences.</i>
1385
01:55:45,531 --> 01:55:52,097
Many people, friends, ask me, as a professor,
which is the best school.
1386
01:55:52,520 --> 01:55:53,942
Which is the best model.
1387
01:55:54,890 --> 01:55:59,035
And I simply answer "Look. Where there's love,
there's respect,
1388
01:55:59,563 --> 01:56:03,287
and where there's respect we can create,
because there's dialogue."
1389
01:56:03,594 --> 01:56:08,033
So an institution where one can really love others,
1390
01:56:09,340 --> 01:56:13,660
- and loving means accepting his differences -
where there's love there's respect.
1391
01:56:15,248 --> 01:56:19,987
Many of these pedagogic proposals were iniciated
there, and from there they built
1392
01:56:20,743 --> 01:56:23,999
a very coherent discursivity.
1393
01:56:26,187 --> 01:56:32,467
But in my opinion they committed the mistake which is
much too common in we human beings,
1394
01:56:32,765 --> 01:56:34,686
they believed they'd found the truth.
1395
01:56:35,943 --> 01:56:40,466
The important thing isn't to invent another pedagogy,
and another, and another,
1396
01:56:40,566 --> 01:56:45,804
but to adequate pedagogy to the cultural moment,
to that group of children,
1397
01:56:45,904 --> 01:56:50,866
to that group of teachers. Thus we're
going to enjoy pedagogy.
1398
01:56:51,642 --> 01:56:54,732
He has to follow his instincts,
1399
01:56:57,030 --> 01:57:07,295
and not stick to what he has been doing,
simply so as not to break the inertia.
1400
01:57:09,283 --> 01:57:13,634
Let him forget all he has learned, everything that
was ever said to him and let him
1401
01:57:13,734 --> 01:57:16,733
make contact with his heart. So that every
time he sees a child,
1402
01:57:17,439 --> 01:57:20,257
he should recall being a child himself, and that
what he liked most was to play
1403
01:57:20,357 --> 01:57:24,491
and what he desired most was somebody's smile, and what he
wanted most was somebody to tickle him,
1404
01:57:24,591 --> 01:57:27,791
and to really connect with that human being,
heart to heart.
1405
01:57:27,891 --> 01:57:31,677
I honestly believe that education is a matter of people,
1406
01:57:32,592 --> 01:57:39,225
beyond all pedagogies... it's carried out by a person.
1407
01:57:44,630 --> 01:57:49,274
- Micaela, I had to leave work and come all the way
here for such a stupid thing.
1408
01:57:49,657 --> 01:57:51,097
- It's not stupid to me.
1409
01:57:51,602 --> 01:57:53,132
- I don't know why they called me.
1410
01:57:53,326 --> 01:57:56,746
- I don't know mom, some guys wanted to read
something and they didn't let them.
1411
01:57:57,087 --> 01:57:59,501
- You've passed everything, right?
1412
01:57:59,688 --> 01:58:01,359
- Yes mom.
- Fine.
1413
01:58:01,473 --> 01:58:04,016
- You have to graduate! How do you think
you're going to enter university?
1414
01:58:04,438 --> 01:58:06,729
- And who told you that I want to go to university?
1415
01:58:06,830 --> 01:58:08,868
- Well, Juan, that's it!
1416
01:58:09,030 --> 01:58:12,089
Your future is assured ....
1417
01:58:12,225 --> 01:58:17,883
So, now you can go on holiday, enjoy the beach ...
1418
01:58:20,268 --> 01:58:24,268
"Ideals don't belong in education, because they
impede comprehension of the present.
1419
01:58:24,268 --> 01:58:28,268
There's no doubt that we can only pay attention to the present,
1420
01:58:28,268 --> 01:58:32,268
when we avoid looking to the future."
1421
01:58:32,351 --> 01:58:39,259
Family is everything, it's where we come from,
it's the beginning of everything,
1422
01:58:39,362 --> 01:58:43,819
it's where we feel welcome. Family is really important.
1423
01:58:45,039 --> 01:58:49,571
Systemic pedagogy says that parents are the
protagonists of education,
1424
01:58:49,790 --> 01:58:57,881
so a school that has little contact with the families
is a school that tends to shut itself in,
1425
01:58:58,098 --> 01:59:01,526
and consequently produces relationships and
learning mechanisms
1426
01:59:01,653 --> 01:59:05,655
that are bound to be detached from the
reality of each student.
1427
01:59:05,861 --> 01:59:11,609
Without the involvement of parents and families in general,
there can be no real project.
1428
01:59:15,093 --> 01:59:18,591
The family is not responsible for bad results at school,
as the school rightly says,
1429
01:59:19,205 --> 01:59:23,174
the family is responsible for everything in the life
of the person it is raising.
1430
01:59:25,000 --> 01:59:27,642
It is determinant in the formation of a human being
1431
01:59:28,707 --> 01:59:36,642
because one can elaborate all the necessary work in sensitization,
respect, appreciation towards others,
1432
01:59:36,757 --> 01:59:41,953
but if that child goes home and the father barely sees him,
he disavows him, and when he does recognize him
1433
01:59:42,541 --> 01:59:46,459
it's to tell him off, to yell at him,
to order him about,
1434
01:59:47,710 --> 01:59:49,940
what will that child retain?
1435
01:59:51,711 --> 01:59:55,979
<i>In the past children learnt at home,
working with their parents,</i>
1436
01:59:56,146 --> 01:59:58,478
<i>at their daily chores.</i>
1437
01:59:59,009 --> 02:00:02,236
<i>They learnt everything from sharing with their
parents and with the community.</i>
1438
02:00:03,131 --> 02:00:05,752
<i>Schools had to partner this process.</i>
1439
02:00:06,751 --> 02:00:09,635
<i>But many families have lost this self-confidence,</i>
1440
02:00:10,137 --> 02:00:14,930
<i>confidence in that their own instincts can show them
how to raise and educate a child.</i>
1441
02:00:15,314 --> 02:00:16,819
<i>As we have always done for thousands of years.</i>
1442
02:00:18,578 --> 02:00:23,753
It seems that parents believe that raising
a child is a proffesional activity,
1443
02:00:24,458 --> 02:00:31,301
I mean, that to be capable of raising my own child
I should study, I should exert myself,
1444
02:00:31,840 --> 02:00:36,949
and that since I probably won't do a good job of it anyway,
regardless of how hard I try,
1445
02:00:37,175 --> 02:00:39,686
the best is to hand the child over to a professional,
1446
02:00:39,790 --> 02:00:43,851
to a pedagogue, a pediatrician, a psychologist,
but it's not like that.
1447
02:00:43,962 --> 02:00:46,462
The only ones that can take proper care
of their children are the parents.
1448
02:00:50,375 --> 02:00:56,863
I mean the children ... it's a great opportunity, it's a gift,
honestly it's a gift!
1449
02:00:57,051 --> 02:01:05,881
And it's so sad to see that in the developed world what we do
is to separate them from us.
1450
02:01:06,234 --> 02:01:11,844
We take them to school early. There are mothers and fathers
who see their child for only one hour a day!
1451
02:01:12,663 --> 02:01:19,314
But how on earth can this be? I mean, how can we expect
to produce something beautiful in this way?
1452
02:01:20,340 --> 02:01:23,292
Children need to be with their parents,
1453
02:01:25,665 --> 02:01:31,935
a child establishes a strong relationship with a person,
who is usually his mother,
1454
02:01:32,461 --> 02:01:35,348
and he suffers badly when he is separated
from that person.
1455
02:01:35,949 --> 02:01:41,795
The younger he is, the worse he feels, and even worse still depending
on the length of time he is separated from that person.
1456
02:01:46,488 --> 02:01:51,556
He realises that we have left him secluded away
whilst we ourselves are doing interesting things,
1457
02:01:52,008 --> 02:01:56,489
or we are working and they're locked away there
to prevent them from bothering.
1458
02:01:56,981 --> 02:02:03,254
That's how they feel much of the time, and they don't
understand why they have to learn all that.
1459
02:02:04,785 --> 02:02:11,059
Even first rate nurseries have done nothing good.
1460
02:02:11,320 --> 02:02:15,019
It's one thing to separate a child from it's mother so soon ...
1461
02:02:15,119 --> 02:02:20,584
...what, who, what survey supports this?
There's nothing to support this.
1462
02:02:20,857 --> 02:02:25,461
We should be with our families, schools don't belong there,
1463
02:02:25,674 --> 02:02:28,220
we should be playing with our friends,
1464
02:02:28,470 --> 02:02:32,708
with our gangs of friends, learning all about the world.
1465
02:02:33,751 --> 02:02:38,795
<i>Social pressures, long working hours, the fear
of being excluded,</i>
1466
02:02:39,134 --> 02:02:45,604
<i>oblige us to make daily decisions without stopping to ask
if they're logical or coherent to us,</i>
1467
02:02:45,813 --> 02:02:47,703
<i> without reflecting on how we feel.</i>
1468
02:02:49,436 --> 02:02:55,188
I think that children are the reflexion of the society we live in,
and that if they are well taken care of,
1469
02:02:56,616 --> 02:03:00,989
it shows. But our society doesn't take care of it's children
because it doesn't take care of itself.
1470
02:03:01,556 --> 02:03:03,427
They are our mirror.
1471
02:03:07,054 --> 02:03:13,966
When a child returns home from school, the parents'
question is: What did you do?
1472
02:03:14,450 --> 02:03:17,762
How was everything? What did you learn?
1473
02:03:18,814 --> 02:03:23,405
But the question we never make is:
How did you feel in school today?
1474
02:03:25,419 --> 02:03:31,561
The most revolutionary idea that exists is to
try to make people happy.
1475
02:03:32,174 --> 02:03:36,518
When someone is happy, they want to
share this with others,
1476
02:03:36,732 --> 02:03:41,165
they want to share love with others, and they want to
help and cooperate with others.
1477
02:03:41,391 --> 02:03:44,239
But for this they need to feel good about themselves.
1478
02:03:44,466 --> 02:03:51,236
If I keep telling my son to be happy, to be happy,
but I myself feel resentful
1479
02:03:51,757 --> 02:03:53,926
because my parents didn't teach me this,
1480
02:03:54,325 --> 02:03:58,317
my son will never really learn what happiness is
1481
02:03:58,658 --> 02:04:00,680
because I won't be exemplifying it.
1482
02:04:03,873 --> 02:04:06,433
When does one feel well with oneself?
1483
02:04:07,976 --> 02:04:14,253
A person is satisfied with who he is when he is able to
look at his father and mother,
1484
02:04:14,490 --> 02:04:20,919
and say, "Yes, this is my father and this is my mother, and despite
everything that has happened I'm at peace with my past.
1485
02:04:21,548 --> 02:04:25,223
I'm not against anything, I don't need to support nor to
demonstrate anything to anyboby,
1486
02:04:25,458 --> 02:04:28,580
I don't need to build any kind of false identity,
1487
02:04:28,779 --> 02:04:32,147
I'm a teacher, I'm a psychologist, I'm whatever.
No. I simply am."
1488
02:04:35,131 --> 02:04:38,968
They need to try to remember the child they once were,
1489
02:04:40,142 --> 02:04:46,584
and to remember that what was most important for them
was to see unconditional love in their parents' eyes,
1490
02:04:47,325 --> 02:04:48,881
total acceptance,
1491
02:04:58,469 --> 02:05:04,653
and that they observe their own children with curiosity
and with perception,
1492
02:05:11,900 --> 02:05:14,907
not only discovering the child himself, but also
1493
02:05:15,257 --> 02:05:19,878
the world through the child's eyes and hands.
1494
02:05:28,552 --> 02:05:34,246
I think that that is how we find authentic
maternity and paternity.
1495
02:05:36,706 --> 02:05:43,917
So I'd tell them to really look at their offspring
and if they don't have any, at other children,
1496
02:05:44,946 --> 02:05:48,112
to observe children from the heart for a while,
1497
02:05:49,041 --> 02:05:51,611
and that's enough... to decide...
1498
02:05:55,033 --> 02:05:59,501
Pay him as much attention as possible, play and
romp with him,
1499
02:05:59,632 --> 02:06:03,477
share as much as you can with him, let him
participate in your tasks,
1500
02:06:03,589 --> 02:06:07,057
let him learn about the household,
but at his pace, and as a game.
1501
02:06:09,727 --> 02:06:14,057
No matter how many good methods we have,
essentially the child needs love,
1502
02:06:14,346 --> 02:06:19,705
proximity, feeling cared for and protected,
the younger he is, the more protected.
1503
02:06:21,502 --> 02:06:25,734
Thus he himself can protect and take care
of others later on.
1504
02:06:26,341 --> 02:06:29,509
I mean, first of all he has to be attached
so as to become detached.
1505
02:06:32,456 --> 02:06:35,653
I think that mothers and fathers,
1506
02:06:37,778 --> 02:06:42,794
are going back to being the educators that we
were at some moment.
1507
02:06:43,798 --> 02:06:48,425
Rather than dumping your child in a place where
it seems he will be educated,
1508
02:06:48,822 --> 02:06:53,216
we are saying : "Let's see. No, wait.
I don't accept this."
1509
02:06:54,611 --> 02:06:58,489
Besides, I believe it should emerge from there,
it won't come from the authorities,
1510
02:06:58,614 --> 02:07:06,582
this is something that, on a personal level, you
simply have to work at so as to accomplish it.
1511
02:07:08,701 --> 02:07:12,714
<i>Our social, cultural and personal history
has brought us to this moment.</i>
1512
02:07:13,020 --> 02:07:17,627
<i>We embrace and create many objectives and expectations,
which are probably not our own,</i>
1513
02:07:18,080 --> 02:07:19,565
<i>but of the world that surrounds us:</i>
1514
02:07:20,603 --> 02:07:24,625
<i>the best school, the best university, titles,
prestige, money.</i>
1515
02:07:25,338 --> 02:07:27,440
<i>We have forgotten what we are really looking for.</i>
1516
02:07:27,924 --> 02:07:34,234
What are they looking for? Do they want their child
to hold a specific degree? What for?
1517
02:07:34,954 --> 02:07:39,669
Why am I searching for knowledge? What am I looking
for? What kind of knowledge am I seeking?
1518
02:07:40,235 --> 02:07:45,059
Knowledge that will propel the child to success? From
what point of view?
1519
02:07:46,470 --> 02:07:52,740
"My son has to be the way I want", or "he has to accomplish
what I was never able to accomplish".
1520
02:07:53,206 --> 02:07:54,568
All this is too selfish.
1521
02:07:55,405 --> 02:08:00,028
Am I educating them so that they can adapt to the society
they have to live in, which is going to be tough?
1522
02:08:02,287 --> 02:08:07,163
Or am I educating them so that they can discover
what they like, what they don't like,
1523
02:08:07,316 --> 02:08:10,552
and that in their day to day, they should work
on behalf of society?
1524
02:08:10,964 --> 02:08:16,876
Because a child has such a refreshing concept of the world,
he will naturally question mine,
1525
02:08:17,260 --> 02:08:21,810
because everything is new for him.
For him nothing is old.
1526
02:08:22,920 --> 02:08:27,252
Trust your children, they know much more
than you think,
1527
02:08:27,983 --> 02:08:33,354
because sometimes those who limit our children the most
1528
02:08:34,183 --> 02:08:37,529
are we, the parents, and then we suffer the consequences.
1529
02:08:37,866 --> 02:08:42,132
What I'm trying say is that it's so lovely to be able
to care for your child,
1530
02:08:42,540 --> 02:08:48,044
because of all the unexpected, and all the mysterious,
and all of the worries he brings us,
1531
02:08:48,459 --> 02:08:52,377
it's lovely because it's an immense opportunity
for us to grow.
1532
02:08:53,489 --> 02:08:57,934
<i>Let us set free our expectations, and put aside
what the world expects from children,</i>
1533
02:08:58,233 --> 02:09:00,349
<i>what culture expects from every one of us.</i>
1534
02:09:01,919 --> 02:09:03,845
Respect children,
1535
02:09:05,475 --> 02:09:09,191
give them the opportunity to develop
in their own manner,
1536
02:09:09,390 --> 02:09:13,094
not as we adults want or think it should be done,
1537
02:09:13,648 --> 02:09:16,720
but as they can do it.
1538
02:09:18,411 --> 02:09:23,403
<i>The ideals and objectives we have created prevent us
from seeing children as they really are,</i>
1539
02:09:23,832 --> 02:09:28,580
<i>and what it is they need... not tomorrow or
in a few years' time, but today.</i>
1540
02:09:30,584 --> 02:09:38,136
There's only one thing that is really important.
1541
02:09:47,806 --> 02:09:50,837
It's the love we can give children.
1542
02:09:53,014 --> 02:09:55,128
If we want a different society,
1543
02:09:57,769 --> 02:10:00,159
the only thing we really have to do,
1544
02:10:01,300 --> 02:10:05,047
is to love children, and to teach them to love others.
1545
02:10:05,939 --> 02:10:10,516
Knowledge will appear all by itself, worldly
answers turn up on their own,
1546
02:10:11,774 --> 02:10:16,671
but a child who was never loved, will hardly
learn how to love.
1547
02:10:17,984 --> 02:10:22,556
- This is something written by our classmates, to be read
at the end of the year, but they weren't allowed to.
1548
02:10:23,710 --> 02:10:27,179
And I think this is important, so I'd like to read it.
1549
02:10:30,626 --> 02:10:32,537
"Nowadays education is forbidden.
1550
02:10:33,936 --> 02:10:36,848
Very little of what happens in our school
is truly important.
1551
02:10:37,900 --> 02:10:40,868
and what really matters isn't written down anywhere.
1552
02:10:43,600 --> 02:10:44,872
How can we face life?
1553
02:10:46,121 --> 02:10:47,626
How do we deal with difficulties?
1554
02:10:48,832 --> 02:10:51,189
We don't know. We weren't taught that."
1555
02:10:52,321 --> 02:10:58,972
"They always talk about education, progress, democracy,
liberty, a better world...
1556
02:10:59,194 --> 02:11:01,463
but none of that happens inside the classroom.
1557
02:11:02,082 --> 02:11:06,558
They teach us to remain separate from each other
and to compete for worthless goals.
1558
02:11:07,452 --> 02:11:08,959
Neither parents nor teachers ever listen to us.
1559
02:11:10,670 --> 02:11:12,386
They never ask our opinions.
1560
02:11:14,411 --> 02:11:18,179
They haven't an inkling of what we feel, what we think,
or what we want to do.
1561
02:11:19,005 --> 02:11:21,866
Wouldn't it be great if we were to choose to go to
school every day?
1562
02:11:23,626 --> 02:11:25,338
Our own choice, not our parents'.
1563
02:11:26,599 --> 02:11:30,859
That the school be a beautiful place, to be enjoyed,
to play in, to feel free in,
1564
02:11:32,217 --> 02:11:34,935
in which to choose what to learn
and how to learn it."
1565
02:11:35,684 --> 02:11:39,562
<i>There's a host of experiments that have dared
to transform school structures.</i>
1566
02:11:40,030 --> 02:11:43,684
<i>Educators who have dared to think of schooling
from a different perspective.</i>
1567
02:11:44,902 --> 02:11:47,315
<i>Many of them have become formal methods,</i>
1568
02:11:48,069 --> 02:11:50,893
<i>others are functioning within communityand
public spaces,</i>
1569
02:11:51,209 --> 02:11:54,251
<i>some have chosen to continue with the
experiment privately</i>
1570
02:11:55,063 --> 02:11:58,498
<i>and many others do it within public school
classrooms.</i>
1571
02:11:59,945 --> 02:12:03,945
<i>These examples are living proof that
traditional school systems</i>
1572
02:12:03,945 --> 02:12:06,557
<i>can be reinterpreted and altered.</i>
1573
02:12:06,657 --> 02:12:09,094
<i>There are experiments in all classes and social groups</i>
1574
02:12:09,399 --> 02:12:11,928
<i>where there are educators intending to change.</i>
1575
02:12:12,675 --> 02:12:19,301
<i>Active Education, Popular, Libertarian, Cooperative,
Free, Ecological, Democratic, Holistic</i>
1576
02:12:19,697 --> 02:12:22,844
<i>Ethnic, Education without School, Home Schooling ....</i>
1577
02:12:24,057 --> 02:12:30,005
<i>To a greater or lesser extent, all these experiments
look to learning as a continuum,</i>
1578
02:12:30,456 --> 02:12:35,917
<i>as a living interchange between the individual, his peers,
his environment and his community.</i>
1579
02:12:36,444 --> 02:12:38,158
<i>A living education...</i>
1580
02:12:38,763 --> 02:12:40,869
"Teach us that things can be different.
1581
02:12:42,771 --> 02:12:44,496
That's the example you must give us.
1582
02:12:45,596 --> 02:12:47,643
Your expectations are your own, not ours.
1583
02:12:48,777 --> 02:12:51,186
And unless you change them, we'll continue failing."
1584
02:12:53,257 --> 02:12:56,556
<i>This film sets forth only some of the ideas
we came across.</i>
1585
02:12:56,880 --> 02:13:02,119
<i>We visited some of the many experiments taking place,
and we only got to know a few of them in depth.</i>
1586
02:13:05,195 --> 02:13:08,433
<i>The one and only method doesn't exist, the best
example doesn't exist,</i>
1587
02:13:09,104 --> 02:13:14,051
<i>but true diversity exists when we respect and experience
that diversity in all its dimensions.</i>
1588
02:13:14,720 --> 02:13:20,237
<i>All these experiences are valuable because they're the result
of what some people dedicated their lives to learning.</i>
1589
02:13:21,169 --> 02:13:27,180
<i>There are disagreements and coincidences, but there's no doubt
that they all contribute to the improvement of education.</i>
1590
02:13:31,063 --> 02:13:33,690
We need their ideas and practices to see the light,</i>
1591
02:13:34,229 --> 02:13:38,380
<i>we need to know their contributions, their stories,
their strong points and their limitations.</i>
1592
02:13:39,197 --> 02:13:44,650
<i>To share resources, exchange points of view and
build a new educational paradigm together.</i>
1593
02:13:47,403 --> 02:13:48,695
"Because of all this, we say ENOUGH!
1594
02:13:51,076 --> 02:13:52,570
Stop deciding for us,
1595
02:13:55,075 --> 02:13:57,551
stop rating us, stop imposing on us.
1596
02:13:59,092 --> 02:14:03,042
Neither Science, nor exams, nor degrees
can define us."
1597
02:14:03,626 --> 02:14:07,545
- That's why we are here, to discuss and to
share our ideas.
1598
02:14:07,942 --> 02:14:10,100
- To learn that things can change.
1599
02:14:10,266 --> 02:14:14,044
"We are going to decide what we want to be,
to do, to feel or to think.
1600
02:14:15,569 --> 02:14:20,331
<i>Today, more than ever, resources exist so that these
experiments can multiply and diversify.</i>
1601
02:14:21,264 --> 02:14:24,247
<i>Schools and education could reunite once again,</i>
1602
02:14:25,095 --> 02:14:28,062
<i>in a place built and managed by
the entire community,</i>
1603
02:14:28,537 --> 02:14:31,667
<i>and that answers to the needs of the people
and their environment.</i>
1604
02:14:33,031 --> 02:14:34,904
"We believe that education is forbidden.
1605
02:14:35,228 --> 02:14:40,137
Not because of the families, not because of the
children, not because of the teachers."
1606
02:14:41,865 --> 02:14:43,214
We all forbid Education.
1607
02:14:44,200 --> 02:14:48,100
Every time you choose to look the other way
instead of choosing to listen.
1608
02:14:48,108 --> 02:14:52,400
Every time we select the final goal,
instead of the path.
1609
02:14:52,409 --> 02:14:56,919
Every time we leave everything the same,
instead of trying something new.
1610
02:14:58,086 --> 02:15:03,438
<i>This movie is an invitation to meet with education
beyond the school walls we know so well,</i>
1611
02:15:03,710 --> 02:15:06,151
<i>an invitation to think about other forms of learning,</i>
1612
02:15:06,465 --> 02:15:10,822
<i>to talk and debate about scholastic and
educational practices.</i>
1613
02:15:11,375 --> 02:15:12,299
- Whether you're a teacher.
1614
02:15:13,154 --> 02:15:13,954
- Whether you're a student.
1615
02:15:14,512 --> 02:15:19,132
- Whether you're a parent; whoever you are, help us.
1616
02:15:19,550 --> 02:15:20,867
- Education must move forward.
1617
02:15:21,806 --> 02:15:22,682
- It must grow.
1618
02:15:23,135 --> 02:15:24,331
- It must change.
1619
02:15:26,568 --> 02:15:30,350
<i>To meet with others, to get to know and
to probe their experiences,</i>
1620
02:15:30,744 --> 02:15:34,186
<i>to exchange ideas and make them come true.</i>
1621
02:15:36,831 --> 02:15:41,065
<i>This is our proposal and it begins today.</i>
1622
02:15:46,100 --> 02:15:47,100
JOIN REEVO
Red de Educación Viva
1623
02:15:47,101 --> 02:15:51,300
ENCOUNTER, INTERCHANGE, ACTION
1624
02:15:53,101 --> 02:15:59,300
English subtitle's credits:
educacionprohibida.com/creditos#sub-en
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